Myth of the Hourglass
by RLSdreadnault
Summary: Voldemort exiles Harry to the time of the Founders in an attempt to dispose of him permanently. Harry struggles to make the best of his situation and return to the future. His friends scramble to find him in history as Voldemort builds his power.
1. Chapter 1

_**Myth of the Hourglass**_

_By:_

**RLSdreadnault**

_Published simultaneously on the Sink Into Your Eyes fan fiction archive._

Disclaimer: This following is a work of fan fiction. The author is not earning a profit from the writing or publishing of it.

Author's Note: This story presupposes most of the events up to the end of the fifth Harry Potter book, _Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix_. From that point, it departs from the 'canon.'

_**Chapter One: Harry Potter's Disappearance**_

Upon arriving home from his fifth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Harry discovered that a number of subtle changes had taken place among the Dursley family. Most of these changes were improvements. The first and foremost improvement being that his cousin Dudley, his uncle Vernon, and even his aunt Petunia were now generally avoiding him even to the extent that he was rarely asked to perform chores.

By way of eavesdropping, Harry later learned that these changes in behavior were the consequence of a letter they had received from Albus Dumbledore, the Headmaster of Hogwarts. In the letter, Professor Dumbledore had detailed some of Harry's escapades during the past year, perhaps even exaggerating some of them. The letter had instilled in the Dursleys a healthy respect, or rather fear, of Harry's capabilities and was the source of the improvements that Harry now enjoyed.

In addition to the information about Harry's adventures, Professor Dumbledore had also taken the liberty to inform them of a few facts about Lord Voldemort, the self-proclaimed Dark Lord who considered Harry Potter to be his primary nemesis. Harry was not sure whether the Dursleys understood just how important a role Harry played in the ongoing fight against Lord Voldemort, but they seemed to understand at least one thing. Voldemort was at large and the defense Harry could provide was better than nothing. This created an unfortunate annoyance for Harry.

Whenever one or more of his relatives opted to leave their neighborhood in Surrey to go shopping or to run other errands, they brought Harry along with them. Apparently they hoped that his presence would work to stave off the evil 'freaks' that were not content to merely exist and annoy people like the Dursleys, but were in the habit of going around and killing people.

As a consequence of this, Harry found himself in a mall not far from London with the Dursleys one Friday night. The Dursleys normally purchased clothes at shops not far from Privet Drive, but Dudley had become so obese that finding clothes for him had turned into a major quest.

"I won't wear this!" Dudley exclaimed loudly, drawing glances from the other customers who were thumbing through the clothes racks. "It's . . . stupid!"

"Nonsense!" Vernon declared gruffly. "It looks quite respectable."

Petunia chose not to comment on the style factor of the shorts they were trying to buy for Dudley. They were indeed hideous, but she was sick of shopping and it would be worse if Dudley had nothing to wear. "Could anything my Diddykins wore look bad?" she asked in her usual high-pitched voice.

Harry rolled his eyes. Watching Dudley shop for clothes was miserable. "I'm going to wait outside," he mumbled to no one in particular.

Usually, no one would have paid attention. This summer was different though. Aunt Petunia withdrew her attention from Dudley and the prospective shorts for long enough to issue a peremptory command to Harry. "Don't wander far!"

"Don't worry," Harry muttered as he escaped the clothing shop, wondering how they could assume that he'd lift a finger to save them from a Dark wizard or witch. By their standards, he would be perfectly justified in joining in to help kill them.

The bench directly outside the clothing shop, Extraordinarily Big & Tall, was occupied by an elderly couple resting from their shopping exertions. A mother with a gaggle of children was standing in front of the next closest one. He spotted a vacant bench just across the way in front of an electronics store and quickly darted over to it and sat down.

At first, he contented himself with watching the people passing. There were a few people who were dressed oddly enough that they could be wizards or witches. Then again, they might have actually been people who just didn't know how to dress or had gotten suckered into buying hideous clothes.

Harry quickly got bored and thought back to the conversation he had endured with Professor Dumbledore after the showdown at the Ministry of Magic. At first he had been terribly angry with the aged man for holding back the secret of the prophecy, and then angry at fate in general for dealing him such a bad hand.

The time that had passed since that night had tempered Harry's feelings somewhat. He was resolved that he would have to play an important role in Voldemort's defeat. The thing that chafed him now was waiting for something to happen. If he was so important to the conflict, why wasn't Dumbledore keeping him close and letting him in on the action?

Harry was abruptly jerked from his reverie by the shouts from the mall security guards. He looked up to discover that the mall was now swarming with black robed wizards and witches who were silently taking positions along the corridor and blocking off the exits.

His eyes widened with shock and as quickly as he could, he leapt from the bench and into the electronics store where he could both stay out of sight and watch what was going on as he wondered whether this was a general raid or if the Death Eaters were specifically after him. _The Dursleys were right about the necessity of taking me along,_ Harry realized. Vaguely, he regretted having abandoned them. _On the other hand,_ he reckoned, _they're probably not the primary targets anyway._

The security guards were confused and frightened. Though the Death Eaters had said nothing to anyone, they were clearly a dangerous threat. Harry watched as one guard lost his self-control and irrationally tried to subdue one of the Death Eaters.

Harry winced as the Death Eater quickly pointed his wand and killed the guard with a single "Avada Kedavra!" At this point, all the Muggles froze and raised their hands into the air, assuming that they were dealing with some sort of terrorist group or hostage situation.

Nothing was said by anyone for several minutes except for the occasional grunt or exclamation of surprise made by the occasional unsuspecting shopper exiting a store and finding his or herself a hostage of some sort. Harry was very confused. It had been his impression that Death Eaters usually struck small, remotes locations quickly, hard, and escaped fast.

Nothing happened until the unsuspecting Dursleys exited the Extraordinarily Big & Tall shop with their purchases for Dudley. Of all the hostages, their reaction was the most pronounced. Petunia screamed and tried to run, Vernon collapsed, and Dudley tried to run but was hindered by his bulk.

They were promptly cut off by the Death Eaters who with menacing looks goaded them into the center of the mall's corridor where they stood quivering with fear. Their appearance seemed to garner a reaction from the Death Eaters in charge and within a few seconds, Lord Voldemort arrived.

Harry watched, feeling the blood slowing leaving his face. He didn't know what he could do for the Dursleys that wouldn't leave all of them dead. Undoubtedly, the Death Eaters would notice any magic he did and they had certainly taken precautions against an alarm being raised very quickly. Deciding that he'd have to wait, Harry focused on Voldemort and the Dursleys.

"Petunia and Vernon Dursley," Lord Voldemort declared as he walked up to them and looked each of them in the eyes for a moment. "You've indirectly played into my hand. I must congratulate you." He turned and retreated toward some of his Death Eaters.

Vernon Dursley summoned up some courage and shouted at Voldemort's retreating back. "You and your cronies are just freaks! Do you hear me? Freaks!"

Voldemort spun around and stared at Vernon for a moment. "You remind me of my father," he said quietly. "You'll have the opportunity to meet him shortly, as soon as I conclude some important business." An evil smile spread across Voldemort's face and he turned in Harry's vague direction. "Potter! Come out from where you're hiding. You have my word that I mean you no harm this evening."

Harry didn't believe Voldemort for one moment. He knew all too well Voldemort's desire to kill him. However, there wasn't much choice. Knowing Voldemort, he would eventually discover Harry's hiding place. In the meanwhile, he might try killing the innocent bystanders.

Counting on the blood wards guaranteeing him protection, keeping in mind that his wand and Voldemort's shared cores and could never properly duel, and knowing that only the Dark lord could kill him, Harry opted to step out and reveal himself. Surely the Ministry had detected Voldemort's mischief and would be on their way before too long. Perhaps he could stall long enough for the Aurors to arrive.

Harry drew his wand, emerged from his hiding place, and slowly walked out into the center of the mall between the Dursleys and Voldemort. "All right, Voldemort. I'm here. What do you want?"

Voldemort stared at Harry, hatred painted all over his face and burning in his red eyes. "It is clear that my attempts to kill you have resulted in disaster for the both of us. You refuse to die and I refuse to have you continue meddling in my affairs. I'm here to dispose of you." He raised his wand and pointed it at Harry.

Before Voldemort could say anything, Harry quickly shot a stunning charm toward Voldemort, hoping that Priori Incantatem would work in his favor. The Dark lord had anticipated this. He quickly dodged the stunner and with a silent curse and flick of his wand, caused Harry's precious wand to explode.

Harry gasped as the explosion wrenched his arm and left him holding only a stub of his former wand. Harry was now quite angry, and his face betrayed it. The wand had been one of his most valued possessions.

Voldemort laughed at him. "Don't worry, Harry," he said mockingly. "I'm not going to kill you. In fact, I'm not even going to hurt you. The blood wards prevent that until you're seventeen years of age. I'm just going to . . . exile you."

Harry looked around at the people watching. The Death Eaters were snickering, clearly enjoying Harry's predicament. The Muggle bystanders who had not fainted were staring at both him and Voldemort with confusion. The Dursleys weren't even moving.

He turned around to see Voldemort raise his arms and began a complicated incantation, swishing his wand and waving it in odd patterns. Finally, Voldemort shouted a final word and jabbed his wand toward Harry.

A sound louder than a sonic boom reverberated through the mall and Harry felt an intense burning sensation consume him as the mall and people watching abruptly disappeared as if someone had flicked a light switch off. The burning sensation became unbearably cold as a second ear-splitting sound occurred.

Harry stumbled and fell to the ground, panting heavily and shivering. Several minutes passed before he could spare the strength to look up and observe his surroundings. The only light anywhere was the moon in the sky and its light was barely enough to reveal to Harry that he was now surrounded by a forest and was completely alone.

He pushed himself to his feet and tried to walk, but after only a few steps he stumbled and fell to the earth breathing heavily. "Where am I?" he muttered to no one in particular. Before he could attempt to draw any more conclusions, exhaustion overcame him.

Tonks muttered a few choice epithets as she observed the damage the Death Eaters had caused to the Muggle shopping center. Usually the Ministry responded quickly to Death Eater attacks, but it seemed that this attack had been especially orchestrated and carried out in such a way as to avoid Ministry detection for as long as possible.

The area struck by Voldemort's followers was larger than usual. Hundreds of Muggles had witnessed the Death Eaters performing their handiwork. It would take days if not weeks for the Ministry to contain the situation and alter the Muggles' memories.

Since Lord Voldemort's appearance at the Ministry a month previous, wizards and witches across Britain had been on alert for possible attack. As a result of this, once the alarm had been sounded the response had been more than adequate. There were already dozens of Ministry officials swarming all over the scene, all in a very confused state.

Tonks spotted her immediate supervisor a couple of hundred yards away and began to make her way in that direction but was almost immediately waylaid by Kingsley Shacklebolt, a high ranking auror and fellow member of the Order of the Phoenix.

"Get in here!" he hissed at her discreetly, motioning with his hand. He was standing just in the entrance of the ruins of a shop.

Tonks glanced around and saw that no one in particular was watching them. She quickly joined Kingsley. Before the Ministry had acknowledged Voldemort's return, Professor Dumbledore had instructed them not to make it public knowledge that they were more than passing acquaintances.

"What is it?" she asked.

"Have you already reported in?" he asked.

"No."

"Good. You won't be missed. You've got to get out of here and notify Albus that we've got serious trouble."

Tonks frowned and looked around, seeing the occasional official run past the shop. "I don't understand."

Kingsley pointed toward three Muggle bodies laying just a few feet outside the shop near the center of the mall's corridor. The Ministry had not begun to attend to the dead as there were still wounded Muggles and others who were in need of memory charms. "Do those particular Muggles look familiar?" he asked.

Tonks took a closer look at the bodies in question and gasped when she recognized them as the Dursleys, Harry's supposed guardians. "Are you positive it's them? Was Harry here with them?"

"Yes, it's them and I don't know about Harry." Kingsley said curtly. "I'll try to keep them from being noticed and identified by the others until Albus tells me what we should do. You need to get to Hogwarts and notify him immediately."

"Right, I'm on my way now." Tonks said, drawing her wand.

Tonks quickly Disapparated away and found herself just outside the gates of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The summer holidays had left the usually lively school empty and for the most part devoid of life. Without the students wandering around, the castle reminded her of a dread fortress more so than ever before with its looming walls and high towers. She began to run up to the front doors, praying that Professor Dumbledore would be found there.

It seemed an eternity before she arrived at the stone gargoyle that guarded the entrance to the Headmaster's office. It quickly leapt aside when she uttered the special password given to members of the Order.

Tonks found Professor Albus Dumbledore sitting behind his desk examining several documents. Because he had somehow been forewarned of Tonks coming up the stairs he was looking right at her when she entered the office. "What is it?" he inquired.

Tonks was panting hard despite the physical conditioning that came with her training to be an auror. "There's been a Death Eater attack at a large Muggle shopping center between London and Surrey. Kingsley just discovered the bodies of all three Dursleys there."

"What!" Dumbledore exclaimed, leaping to his feet. "Are you sure? Did he confirm that they were the Dursleys?"

"Yes and yes," Tonks replied. "He said that he's going to try to keep them from being discovered by other Ministry officials until you contact him and tell him how to handle the situation. He's not sure whether Harry was at the scene of the attack or not."

Dumbledore was rapidly pacing back and forth behind his desk thinking as fast as he could. Finally he spoke. "Attacking a Muggle shopping mall is out of character for Voldemort. The target had to have been Harry whether directly or indirectly."

Only a couple of moments passed before he started giving out instructions. "Go find Alastor Moody and then with him proceed to Privet Drive. Check the status of the blood wards that protect Harry. If they're gone, weakened, or don't seem right to you proceed to the house and search it. If you find Harry, evacuate him from the premises and bring him here. If Harry isn't there, collect his possessions and destroy any further trace of him at that residence."

"Is there anything else?"

Dumbledore shook his head. "If you don't find Harry, I'll meet you both at Alastor's house and we'll go from there. I'm going to go put some of the other Order members on the alert and then meet Kingsley."

Tonks nodded and turned to the fireplace to Floo away to Alastor's residence, grabbing some Floo powder from a pot and throwing it into the flames. Before she stepped into the flames, Dumbledore called out. "Be careful when you go to Privet Drive."

A smirk crossed Tonks face. "Yes, I know. Constant vigilance!" She stepped into the flames that were now burning green and disappeared, shouting the name of Moody's residence.

It was Ron who spotted Professor Dumbledore's arrival at the Burrow. His parents had just a half hour previous made it clear that it was time for himself and the twins, Fred and George, to retire. Whether it being from defiance or just a plain lack of need to sleep, Ron was still awake and near enough to his bedroom window to observe movement near the front door.

Upon identifying the late night visitor as his aged headmaster from Hogwarts, Ron immediately knew that something was up or he would not be calling at this hour. The problem was discovering for his self what Dumbledore had to say. That would require some equipment provided by the twins.

Ron immediately donned a bathrobe and opening his bedroom door as silently as possible, exited. He managed to avoid all the steps on the rickety staircase that would creak and slipped into Fred and George's bedroom without knocking.

The Weasley twins had not been sleeping either, and from what Ron saw, they were working on one of their nefarious projects. Fred and George each gave a start upon discovering that their territory had been invaded. When they saw that it was Ron rather than their mother they let out a sigh of a relief.

"Bloody hell!" George swore in a high-pitched whisper.

"You could give a bloke some warning," Fred added.

"I thought I was having a heart attack." George muttered, turning his attention back to the table they had set up in the corner of the room.

Ron rolled his eyes at them. For the most part, he found them funny and quite amusing. However, it could get old at times. "Look you two, Dumbledore just arrived and I think he has news. I need one of your Extendable Ears."

Fred and George didn't bother asking useless questions. They had learned from their prolonged career of pulling pranks how to take a good opportunity at a moment's notice. Fred went for their stash of supplies beneath a floor board while George extinguished the lights and headed for the door. "You're not doing this without us," one of them said to Ron through the darkness.

"If you insist," Ron retorted. "You need to hurry or we'll miss what he says."

"Obviously."

Before he could respond one of them grabbed his elbow and they were out the door and creeping down the stairs.

Ron found himself following the two of them and was quite annoyed. He was the one who had noticed Dumbledore's arrival after all. Why did they have to take charge? His thoughts froze when he bumped into one of the twins, Fred perhaps.

"Crikey!" George turned and mouthed to Fred and Ron, the lights from the downstairs outlining his profile. "They're standing right next to the staircase!" The front door had just been shut and Dumbledore was exchanging greetings with Mrs. Weasley.

Before Ron could process this information, Fred had made a decision. He poked Ron and George for emphasis and pointed to their sister's bedroom door which was just ahead on the landing.

George nodded to Fred and then mouthed a quick instruction. "We'll all go on my signal." He turned his head and shifted his neck a little bit to get a better view of the adults below on the ground floor. Dumbledore spoke a little bit in muted tones to Mrs. Weasley who in turn said in a slightly louder voice that she would go fetch Arthur, the Weasley patriarch.

As soon as Mrs. Weasley, departed George gave the signal and the three boys quietly dashed across the landing, opened Ginny's door, filed in, and shut it before anyone downstairs was the wiser.

Ginny had been slightly asleep, but their entrance had woken and startled her. Her mouth opened to let out an exclamation that was prevented by Fred's hand over her mouth. "Be quiet! Dumbledore is here and we're never going to learn anything if you spoil it."

The youngest Weasley was fairly quick on the uptake and nodded. This resulted in Fred removing his hand from her mouth. "Don't look!" she instructed as she threw off the covers and grabbed a bathrobe to cover her pajamas. "Do you have your Extendable Ears?"

"Of course we do." George muttered as he cracked open the bedroom door and peered out as he removed an Extendable Ear from his pocket. "Who do you take us for?"

"I spotted him first." Ron declared. He was intending to inform Ginny but she didn't seem to hear him as she had already taken position right next to George who had begun to move the Extendable Ear outside the door.

Since the twins' creation of the Extendable Ear a year or so previous, they had become very proficient at manipulating it into prime positions for picking up the voices of their intended targets. It was not long before they were all listening to the conversation between Dumbledore and their parents courtesy of an amplified improvement that the twins had more recently developed for their creation.

". . . attack on a Muggle mall, a sort of collection of shops. Kingsley Shacklebolt is on the scene, and he sent Nymphadora to alert me. The bodies of Harry's aunt, uncle, and cousin were discovered at the scene." 

Mrs. Weasley gasped loudly, but it was Mr. Weasley who spoke first. "What about young Harry?"

"I don't know, Arthur." Dumbledore said quietly. "I'm gravely concerned though. Other than Nymphadora, Kingsley, and Alastor, you're the only Order members who have been alerted. I'm going to go visit the scene of the attack. Meanwhile, I want you two to contact the other Order members and tell them to be ready for anything. I've sent Alastor and Nymphadora to Privet Drive to check for Harry. Pending their return and any other information I can gather, the Order may have to act quickly."

"We'll be ready." Mrs. Weasley said fiercely.

Dumbledore quickly thanked her and then issued a few more instructions. "Arthur, the Ministry may call you in at some point. If they do, go and try to glean what information you can."

"Right," said Mr. Weasley.

"Good." Dumbledore said. "Don't do anything else until you hear from me or I send someone. I expect at the very least we will have to have an Order meeting to discuss the information we collect and what will have to be done."

"We'll be waiting." Mrs. Weasley said quietly.

Dumbledore then left the Weasley residence and the children could hear their parents pacing back and forth. Eventually they began to discuss the ramifications of this news, and nothing new or terribly interesting was said.

The Extendable Ear was dragged back into the room and the door closed by Fred and George while Ron and Ginny watched. Finally, one of the twins summed their feelings up in a single word. "Bugger."

"Harry really disliked the Dursleys," Ron said. "I bet he wasn't even with them. From what I hear, they never took him anywhere or did anything nice for him."

"Maybe not," Fred said seriously, "but I don't know that Voldemort would have bothered with attacking the Dursleys alone."

"Even if Mad-Eye and Tonks find Harry at Privet Drive alive and well, there's going to be consequences," Ginny pointed out. "They're not going to let Harry go and live by himself. Someone is going to become his guardian."

Ron was quick to see the good opportunities that might come from the death of the Dursleys. "Harry could come and live here! I bet Mum and Dad would be okay with it. It would be just like having another brother."

Ginny wasn't so sure how she felt about Harry falling into the brother figure category. She wasn't about to dwell on that though. "Do you think we ought to contact Hermione?" she asked. "I reckon that Dumbledore isn't going to go notify her."

"That's not a bad idea." Ron said. "I have her number for the Muggle tellyphone. We could sneak down to the village and call her."

The twins rolled their eyes and George pointed out that they could just send an owl to Hermione. Ginny quickly pointed out that by the time the owl reached Hermione everything would have changed and if Dumbledore came back with bad news they wouldn't have the opportunity later on to notify her. The twins conceded this point and arrangements were made for Ron and Ginny to take a couple of brooms and fly down to the village pay phone.

Ron and Ginny soon were able to sneak out of the house because their parents had retreated to the kitchen to use the fireplace to notify the other Order members. The twins had promised that they would keep their ears open for more news and cover for them if the Weasley parents came to check on their children.

A few minutes later, Ron and Ginny were on their brooms and zooming toward the Muggle village of Ottery St. Catchpole. Ron seemed to be terribly excited at sneaking around at night and being in on the know, however illegitimately. There was excitement for Ginny too, but this seemed to be overwhelmed by the gravity of the situation.

They made it to Ottery St. Catchpole in record time, primarily because they'd never been allowed to fly there on brooms before. They landed in a small alley and stashed the brooms where they would not be noticed.

Upon exiting the alley into the main street of the village, they discovered that there were still some Muggles out and about. There seemed to be a good sized gathering near the pub where the red telephone booth was located.

No one paid them any attention as they quickly walked to it and shut themselves in. Ron had some previous experience with the Muggle telephone and he soon managed to get some Muggle currency into it and began dialing Hermione's number.

Two or three rings later Hermione picked it up and announced that they had reached the Granger residence. Ron was both startled and glad that Hermione had answered rather than her parents so late at night.

"Hermione, it's Ron here. Something terrible has happened."

"Ron? Is it Death Eaters? Has there been an attack? Are you all right?"

"Yes, there's been an attack, we're all right though. They attacked a Muggle shopping place and Kingsley found the Dursleys, dead."

Hermione's gasp was so loud that even Ginny could hear it. "What about Harry? Is he safe?"

"They're trying to find out. Dumbledore is pretty worried."

"I should think so!"

"Look," Ron said, "we don't know that much about it, but we'll try to keep you updated. We've got to get back to the Burrow before Mum and Dad notice that we've left."

"Okay then. I'll try to find out what I can from the Muggle news."

"What about your parents?" Ron asked.

"They're out." Hermione assured him.

Ron and Hermione exchanged farewells on the phone and then he and Ginny were on their way to pick up their broomsticks.

"I wish our parents went out more often." Ron muttered, envying Hermione's independence to some degree.

"I'm sure Hermione wishes her parents stayed home more often." Ginny said as she rolled her eyes and remembered how much Harry seemed to envy their family when he came to visit.

Sneaking back into the Burrow proved to be a chore for Ron and Ginny given the fact that Mrs. Weasley had taken to wandering aimlessly back and forth between the living room and the kitchen, presumably awaiting word from Professor Dumbledore.

They eventually got back in and found the twins waiting for them in Ginny's room with their Extendable Ear. They had a little bit of news. "The folks from the Ministry called Dad into work." George announced. "They sounded pretty panicked about something."

"I think it's a sign that Harry's missing." Fred said. "They didn't even call him in for the attack. Why would they call him in now?"

Ginny tried to be hopeful. "Cleaning up after a Death Eater attack can take a lot of manpower."

"Maybe," Ron said darkly.

Nothing was said for several hours as the siblings kept vigil in Ginny's room, waiting for news to arrive at the Burrow of Harry's status. The twins sat thoughtfully next to the door, occasionally opening it a crack to check that no one but Mrs. Weasley was downstairs. Ron paced back and forth, the wait wearing on his patience. Ginny settled on her bed and stared at the ceiling.

Sunrise arrived before news came from the Order. At that point, the siblings jointly agreed that there was no point in pretending that they were asleep any longer. They all headed downstairs and found Mrs. Weasley listlessly preparing to make breakfast.

"You're all up early," she commented, trying to make her voice seem light but failing miserably.

"No point in wasting daylight." Fred said cheerfully, faking a yawn.

Mrs. Weasley's eyes narrowed in suspicion. "You already know what has happened, don't you?"

The guilty expression found on the face of all four siblings was answer enough for her. Before she could comment, the flames in the fireplace turned green and Remus Lupin exited.

He tiredly dusted the ashes off himself and then met the faces of the gathered members of the Weasley family who were looking at him hopefully with a forlorn expression. "Dumbledore and the Ministry found the shattered remnants of Harry's wand at the scene of the attack. He's gone."


	2. Chapter 2

_**Chapter Two: Fallout**_

As soon as Lupin announced the discovery of Harry's shattered wand and his confirmed disappearance, Ginny felt as if she had been punched in the gut—hard. Ron's mouth was hanging open and his face looked pale. The twins didn't look particularly happy either.

Mrs. Weasley gasped audibly. "Do you think he's dead?" she inquired.

"No one knows for sure," Lupin mumbled. "The Muggle witnesses weren't terribly helpful. As far as I know, Harry and Voldemort faced off and that's the firmest fact they have. Dumbledore has been all over the place trying to make arrangements and collect facts. The Ministry knows that Harry is gone and has sent people out in force to search for him."

"That hardly does any good if they don't know where to search." Fred said.

"I know," Lupin acknowledged. "Dumbledore wants the Order to get together. We'll review everything that any of us have managed to discover and then figure out what to do. I'm supposed to bring you all in to the new headquarters."

"There's a new headquarters?" Mrs. Weasley asked.

"Yes," Lupin said. "Dumbledore feels that Grimmauld Place isn't safe now that Sirius is dead. It was his theory that Harry inherited complete ownership of the place, but now that he's gone too, we can't be sure of the wards. The new headquarters is at Moody's house."

He pulled a slip of paper from his robes and passed it to Mrs. Weasley who in turn passed it to each of her children. In Professor Dumbledore's handwriting was written the new location. "The Headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix is located at 38 Greyham Way."

Lupin kept talking. "Arthur has already been informed. The Ministry has him and everyone else it can get in working. He'll meet you there. Dumbledore advises that you bring enough clothes and whatnot to last for a couple of weeks. You might be back as soon as this evening, but if it turns out that Harry is dead, things could get really bad really fast."

Mrs. Weasley wasted no time in issuing orders to her children to get their things together. They all left Lupin in the kitchen while they hastily packed some clothes and other things to take to Moody's house. Within half an hour, they were ready to leave the Burrow.

Lupin produced a Portkey for them all to touch. In a second they found themselves holding their baggage while standing in the parlor of an unfamiliar house. "There's not a lot of room," Lupin apologized to the Weasleys. "You'll have to go upstairs and try to find a place to camp."

Just as they were heading upstairs, they heard a quiet pop announcing the arrival of someone. They all turned around and spotted Dumbledore standing in the main hallway. He nodded to them gravely and then began speaking to Lupin urgently.

They continued upstairs, deposited their belongings, and made their way back to the ground floor. Lupin was already gone and Dumbledore had just stepped out the front door. Ginny walked to the window of the living room and saw that Mad-Eye Moody and Dumbledore were standing out front discussing something, Mad-Eye gesturing a little urgently.

"What are they doing?" she asked Fred who had joined her at the window.

"Probably placing wards," he answered gravely. "Harry's disappearance changes a lot of things."

Before Ginny could question Fred's comment, an exclamation of surprise from Ron drew them away from the window. "Hey! It's Harry's trunk."

They found Ron crouching next to Harry's trunk which had been left in the hallway. "They must have retrieved it from Privet Drive," Ginny commented faintly.

"I suppose," Ron said.

Further speculation ended with Mrs. Weasley announcing from the kitchen that she was starting breakfast for everyone and needed their help. With that, Fred and George turned and made for the kitchen, but Ron and Ginny lingered.

When he was sure that no one was watching, Ron opened the trunk and dug through it until he found the Marauder's Map and Harry's Invisibility Cloak. He nodded to Ginny and then ran up the stairs with them while she went to the kitchen and made excuses for Ron's delay.

In short order, breakfast was put on the table, though there was hardly anyone around to partake of it. Ron and the twins helped themselves to large portions while Ginny nervously nibbled on a few slices of bacon. Various members of the Order stopped in for a few moments to speak to Professor Dumbledore or to leave a message if he wasn't there at that particular moment. Mad-Eye was eventually satisfied with the wards he'd been erecting around the house and came in for some breakfast. During all this, the Weasley children did their best to stay out of the way and avoid notice. They reckoned that this strategy was most likely to result in them overhearing more information.

As the morning wore on, they began to notice that the various Order members who stopped in were no longer leaving on further errands. Eventually Moody's house became quite crowded with wizards and witches both familiar and unfamiliar to the Weasley children.

Mr. Weasley arrived with Professor Dumbledore after some more time. Ginny thought this might signal the start of the Order meeting, but was proved wrong as Dumbledore ended up speaking in hushed tones with both Weasley parents and Moody. Ultimately, it was the arrival of Severus Snape, the potions master of Hogwarts and the Order's primary spy that triggered the start of the meeting. He strode into the house looking as foul as ever and sneered at most of the Order members. Ginny was surprised at this; she had previously assumed he was only that way to his students.

Dumbledore stood up and called the meeting to order. "I think it would be helpful to review the facts of this situation before moving on to other things. Last night, the Ministry was alerted to some possible illicit magical activity by a magical shockwave of enormous proportions. Upon arriving at the scene, they discovered that the Death Eaters had attacked a Muggle shopping center."

He gestured to Kingsley Shacklebolt. "It was Kingsley who discovered the bodies of the Dursleys—Harry Potter's primary guardians. He sent Nymphadora Tonks to inform me, and I sent her and Alastor to check Privet Drive. Would you care to report on that, Alastor?"

Mad-Eye Moody stood and cleared his throat. "Tonks and I arrived at Privet Drive and found everything quiet. The blood wards that were supposed to guard Harry are now non-existent. I didn't find any evidence that they had been forcefully destroyed. Albus has examined the area and concurs. We searched the house and did not find Potter. As instructed, we removed his belongings and brought them here."

Several of the Order members whispered to each other while Ron, Ginny, and the twins exchanged glances. So far nothing terribly new had been said.

Dumbledore picked up from where Moody left off. "Harry's shattered wand was found at the scene. I have confirmed that the shattered fragments were indeed Harry's wand with Mr. Ollivander, the maker of said wand. The Muggles who witnessed the attack all seem to agree that a teenager matching Harry's description confronted Voldemort. At some point during this confrontation, the spell causing the magical shockwave was cast."

"After the shockwave, Harry seems to have disappeared. It was after the shockwave that the Dursley's were killed. This is a very curious turn of events. It would seem to me that Voldemort would kill the Dursleys first to destroy the wards protecting Harry rather than the other way around."

Several members of the Order murmured their agreement to this statement. Ginny's brow was furrowed in thought as she considered this information.

"Can anyone confirm whether Potter is dead or is now a prisoner?" someone called out impatiently.

"That's another irregularity with the situation," Dumbledore answered patiently. "Severus?"

Snape stood up and glared at everyone. "As far as I can ascertain, Potter is not a prisoner. Neither is he dead."

Ginny let out a breath she didn't know she had been holding along with several of the others present.

"The Dark lord would not be biding his time if Potter was dead and he would be gloating if he was holding him prisoner. It appears to me that there was a spur of the moment chance to get Potter out of the way somehow and the Dark lord took it."

Discussion then ensued between some of the more vocal members of the Order about where Harry might be, whether he was injured, or whether he might be able to contact them or find his way back. Several had theories about what may have happened to Harry, but to the Weasley children, they all seemed rather unlikely.

Dumbledore commissioned each Order member to look into their own suggestion. Subtle inquiries would be made among all possible contacts. Hedwig who had been retrieved by Tonks and Moody would be put into service in hopes that she might be able to locate her master and lead the Order to him.

Mr. and Mrs. Weasley were appointed to maintain the new headquarters and keep communications up and running. Order members would communicate their progress and findings to the Weasleys who would pass anything important on to Professor Dumbledore. The children were happy about this as it meant they would likely be able to know everything that was going on, though they vaguely wished they could be out there looking too.

The meeting began to conclude with Dumbledore telling them that they would reconvene should anything significant be discovered or if it became necessary to change their strategies. He said he was especially hoping that Snape would be able to glean more information from his connections.

He then urgently stressed the importance of finding Harry. "I realize that some of you think that he's just a lucky child who happened to survive a killing curse cast by Lord Voldemort. I can't stress enough how important he is to our cause. His fame gives us a strong foothold in addition to the fact that he is the only person that Voldemort feels is a threat." That ended the official proceedings of the Order meeting.

Before long, it was only the Weasleys and Professor Dumbledore left in the house. Dumbledore was giving instructions to the Weasley parents about how to communicate with him and for what reasons.

Just as he was about to leave, Ron and Ginny took the opportunity to approach him. Ron ended up taking the lead as he was closer friends with Hermione than Ginny was. "Professor, we were wondering if we could contact Hermione and tell her about what has happened."

Dumbledore nodded to them, his usual twinkle appearing in his eyes. "Yes, go ahead. If she wants, she can even come and stay here at headquarters. It might turn out to be safer for her because she is a well known friend of Harry."

"Is it all right if we go down the street and use a Muggle telephone?" Ron asked, pushing his luck.

Dumbledore told them that he'd leave that option up to Mrs. Weasley and then left to pursue further information about Harry's whereabouts. In short order, they had managed to convince their mother that they would be safe and back in only a few minutes.

It only took a few minutes more for them to find a phone booth and place a call to Hermione. She picked up on the first ring. Apparently she had been waiting by the phone since their original call during the night. "Hello?"

"Harry has disappeared." Ron announced solemnly. "The Order doesn't have a clue where he is other than that he's not dead and not a prisoner." He then related to her the details of what had happened since they had last spoken and where they were now.

"Would you ask if I can come and stay at headquarters with you?" she quickly inquired.

"We already did," Ron admitted. "Professor Dumbledore says that it's all right. He even seemed to approve of the idea." They then made arrangements to meet Hermione and then went home and told Mrs. Weasley who assured them that they'd be able to meet her at the specified time."

After that, there was nothing for them to do but wait for their rendezvous with Hermione early the next day and for information to come in from the various Order members.

In her haste, Hermione practically threw the phone back onto its cradle and ran upstairs to pack her trunk. As she was a terribly organized person, it only took moments to find everything she wanted to bring along and not too much longer to place it in her trunk.

The trunk was soon waiting next to the front door and proved to be quite the surprise for her parents when they arrived home from their dental practice.

"I've got to go tomorrow morning," Hermione announced to them.

Naturally they weren't particularly pleased and were very concerned. This required a lot of explanations and assurances from Hermione. In the end, the argument that she might not be gone the entire summer won them over.

Hermione herself wasn't sure when she would be back but justified her minor deception of her parents with the thought that not only was Harry one of her very few friends, his disappearance endangered the safety of a lot of people, including her parents.

Arrangements were made for Hermione's parents to drop her off at a certain place in London on their way to work the next morning. Hermione at that point regretted setting the rendezvous time for the next day rather than that evening.

* * *

When Harry regained consciousness it was late in the afternoon. Nothing in particular woke him up, other than the taste of dirt and the other pleasant things that are found on forest floors. Though still feeling quite tired and miserable, he pushed himself up and surveyed his surroundings, confirming that there was nothing but forest for miles around.

Harry's growling stomach and dry mouth quickly convinced him that he needed to find food and water soon. He might get lucky and find a stream nearby, but if he wanted food that was appetizing in any way, he was going to have to find a village or town or something.

Cursing the loss of his wand, Harry chose a direction to walk and started off trying to figure out precisely what had happened to him. Voldemort's words came back to Harry. He had said something about exile. That would indicate that Voldemort had simply sent Harry away from Britain.

Returning to Britain won't be that hard, Harry comforted himself. I've just got to find some civilization and I can communicate with someone back home. I might even be back home by the end of the week. Harry wondered if the Dursleys would be there or if they had been killed after his forced departure.

It was several hours and quite nearly dark before Harry spotted anything resembling civilization. What he saw appeared to be a small settlement of some sort. Harry who had begun his journey walking briskly had taken to trudging, but the far off lights lifted his spirits and he picked up the pace.

What he saw was indeed a village and he gratefully made his way to it. As he got closer, he could make out the sight of people moving about. It wasn't until he got even closer that he noticed that there was something strange about them. They were all wearing very funny looking clothes. As he got within earshot, he discovered that the language they were speaking sounded kind of strange, he only recognized the occasional word.

"I suppose people in different countries wear different clothes and speak differently," he told himself out loud, hoping that hand gestures would work for communicating when he needed to talk to them.

He tried to act casual as he walked around the rather primitive town looking for a shop or perhaps post office. Despite his best efforts, he was drawing a great many stares that were making him nervous. The people who didn't stare but hurried by him carefully not looking in his direction were worse. Some of the people seemed to be afraid of him. A couple of mothers even steered their children away from him quite deliberately.

Harry finally found a pub that seemed to be the center of the village. He supposed it would do for his purposes. He followed a small group of men in and looked around. In London, the Leaky Cauldron had always seemed a little old fashioned, but this place was downright medieval. Most of the customers were dressed quite roughly—hard laborers he supposed. There was one fellow wearing a hooded cloak in the corner that looked like he might be wealthy. The barkeep was a thin fellow with a sour expression on his face. He was in the process of dispensing mugs of ale.

Harry had just gotten up the nerve to approach the barkeep and make inquiries when he was approached by three of the rougher looking customers. One of them said something that sounded kind of rude, but Harry didn't understand the words. "Can you please repeat that?" Harry asked slowly and carefully, hoping fervently that they would understand and not be offended.

The three thugs didn't seem pleased at all. Harry glanced around to see if anyone else there might be able to help them. Most were ignoring them, though the fellow in the dark cloak had leaned forward and seemed to be interested in the exchange.

Looking strangely at Harry, the fellow who had spoken before spoke again. Harry focused on what he said as intently as he could and managed to decipher the meaning. "We don't like your sort around here."

"I'm sorry," Harry said sincerely, still focusing on trying to make them understand his words. "I mean no harm. I'm just lost and was hoping to find some help around here."

This answer didn't seem to satisfy the toughs and they made like they were going to lay hands on him. One of them lunged forward and by reflex, Harry held up his arm to shield himself. Suddenly, the thug was flying backward until he crashed into the pub wall.

Harry winced as silence suddenly suffocated the room. He could not remember performing accidental magic since before he had started at Hogwarts. It had always gotten him into trouble and he was sure this time would be no different.

Instead of sticking around to fight, the remaining two thugs fled the pub alongside everyone else, including the barkeep, dodging Harry as if he was a ten-foot-tall ogre. After the exodus, Harry was surprised to see the dark cloaked fellow still at his table.

Harry looked at him. "I don't suppose you know where I could find a telephone or an owl?"

The dark cloaked figure responded with a deep-throated laugh and threw back the hood to reveal a somewhat aged face that looked hard enough for one to be able to use it as a hammer. The man had a mane of hair that had once been bright red, but only faint traces of that red remained among the grey and sometimes white hair. He drew a wand and pointed it at himself, muttered a spell, and then spoke. "I know nothing about a telephone, but I can certainly help you find an owl."

"Thanks." Harry said, extremely grateful for someone who wasn't acting like he was a monster.

The man pointed his wand at Harry and muttered the same spell. "We shall now be able to comprehend each other perfectly. Your previous efforts weren't working very well. What is your name?"

Harry was hesitant to share his name because he didn't want any Death Eaters to locate him before he could properly defend himself. After a slight hesitation he responded. "James, I'm called James."

"I suppose you're wondering about everything that just happened, James. I can explain," the man offered.

Harry was glad because he was quite confused about everything, though he didn't blame the folks who had been quite obviously Muggles from scampering in response to his accidental magic. "I'm so glad," Harry said.

"You're a wizard, James."

Harry started laughing so hard that he doubled over. "I know that! I didn't mean to let loose with the accidental magic in front of all those Muggles, but I was just recently in a fight and my wand was destroyed. Honestly, I didn't mean to wallop that guy."

The man seemed to be quite annoyed. Apparently he was used to a very different response from the people whom he informed of their magical status. Harry supposed that Hagrid would have been rather annoyed if he had reacted the same way back on that island Harry spent the morning of his eleventh birthday on. "What were you expecting me to explain then?"

Harry figured he could trust the man and explained in vague details what had happened. A Dark wizard had come to fight him and cursed him in such a way that he found himself a few miles out in the forest that surrounded the town. He was trying to find his way back home, was completely lost, and everything was very strange to him.

"I've never heard of a spell that could do that," the stranger said thoughtfully. "Then again, the Dark arts are very mysterious and can often do strange things. It sounds like he hit you with a transportation spell. I'm sure we can get you home without any trouble."

"I'm very relieved to hear that," Harry said.

"All you have to do is tell me where you live and I can make a Portkey to take you straight home."

"I'm from England," Harry announced.

It was the stranger's turn to laugh and Harry was very properly offended. "What's so funny about that?"

"We are in England, my boy," the man announced. "You'll have to be more specific."

Harry went on the defensive. "Everything is so strange here that I was absolutely sure I was in a different country. You all dress differently and speak a funny sort of language."

"You'd be surprised at the different people you can find in our land," the man said. "If you can be more specific about where you live I'll get you home straightaway."

Harry had decided that he must have fallen into a town full of loons. He remembered vaguely from his Muggle primary school that there were communities that tried to be old fashioned. This might be one of them. He decided that if the man could get him to London he'd be happy. "Just make the Portkey for London," he requested.

"London?" the man said. "That's just a short distance from here. How can you be lost when it is so close?"

Harry promptly decided they weren't speaking of the same London. "Hogwarts, he muttered. Take me to Hogwarts."

The man abruptly stiffened. "Hogwarts? Why there?"

"I'm a student there!" Harry said in an exasperated voice. "I know the headmaster there. He'll get things sorted out for me."

"I know everyone who has ever been to Hogwarts and you're not one of them," the man stated stiffly. "Who are you, James of London?"

Harry was getting very annoyed. "I'm James! I told you that already. I've been to Hogwarts and I would certainly remember you if I had seen you. Who are you?"

"I am Godric Gryffindor," the man said.

Harry's mouth dropped open. "Huh?"

* * *

Voldemort was one to brag about his accomplishments, both the great and small. Therefore, it was only a few weeks before Severus Snape was able to glean enough information both directly from Voldemort and from the other Death Eaters who dutifully listened to the Dark lord's speeches to ascertain Harry's fate.

He went directly to Professor Dumbledore and reported everything. It only took Professor Dumbledore a little longer to confirm that Snape's information was most likely correct. A meeting of the Order was called. This one would have more members present and be a lot more formal. This caused some problems for Ron, Hermione, and Ginny who had fully expected to be included when Harry's fate was discovered. The Weasley parents, or rather, Mrs. Weasley felt strongly that they were too young for Order business.

"Mum! We were at the last Order meeting!" Ginny argued, her voice at a higher pitch than normal as various Order members trickled past her and into the room where the meeting was to be held.

"That was different!" Mrs. Weasley retorted, her voice even higher. "It was an emergency. Things have settled down since then. This could be dangerous."

Ginny opened her mouth but was supplanted by Hermione who had decided to try to reason with Mrs. Weasley. "Mrs. Weasley, we are perfectly aware of how dangerous things are. We all have had dangerous encounters because we are Harry's friends. At this point, I think it would be better if we are informed, even if we don't necessarily perform dangerous assignments."

"Yeah, Mom," Ron added. "Hermione is right."

Mrs. Weasley glared at the children and was trying to come up with a reply when Professor Dumbledore arrived and noticed the situation. "Is there a problem?" he asked Mrs. Weasley.

"These children want to join the meeting," Mrs. Weasley informed him, her tone of voice making it clear what she thought of that. "I've been trying to get it into their heads that this is serious business."

Dumbledore nodded gravely shot the teens a wink that Mrs. Weasley failed to notice. "The information we've received is rather innocuous, Molly. I fear that the search for Harry will be long and boring, and I am confident that there will be no hazards. We could use any help they would be able to offer."

Mrs. Weasley looked as if she was considering the possibility of letting them in now. They didn't waste their chance, and before she could properly decide walked into the room and found a place where they could sit.

The meeting began and as soon as the opening formalities were concluded, Dumbledore stood up and spoke to everyone. "Severus has been able to provide more detailed information about Harry's fate. It appears that in an attempt to get Harry out of the way, Lord Voldemort employed a very old and forgotten Dark spell to remove Harry from our time and send him to the past."

This caused a hum of conversation among the Order members as they digested this information. Ron, Hermione, and Ginny traded surprised glances. Ginny realized that Dumbledore had not been bluffing when he had told Mrs. Weasley that their help would be useful, especially in the case of Hermione.

Dumbledore then continued speaking. "The spell didn't directly harm Harry, so Voldemort had the ability to cast it on him despite the blood wards protecting him. Harry remains unharmed but is now out of Voldemort's way."

Bill Weasley, one of Ginny's older brothers, who was not living with the family at the present time, raised his hand to ask a question. "Can you confirm that the spell did in fact send Harry to the past?"

Snape seemed to take personal offense that his information had been questioned. Therefore, it was he that answered with a hint of a sneer. "The Dark lord has personally confirmed that the spell succeeded. That is why he killed the Dursleys after Potter's departure. In theory, the Dursleys should have been protected by the same wards protecting Harry. Those wards were to expire on Harry's seventeenth birthday. After Potter's departure, the Dursleys were able to be killed because Potter's seventeenth birthday had come and gone who knows how long ago.

Bill nodded thoughtfully along with several others who had been slightly skeptical of the information. Snape's explanation effectively covered the curiosity concerning the blood wards. There had been no evidence of their destruction.

"Our task now is to search history for Harry Potter," Dumbledore explained. "Voldemort himself is unsure how far Harry may have travelled into the past. We can only hope that he did not go far and had the foresight to leave us some clues."

"If Potter travelled to the past, wouldn't we already know?" Mad-Eye Moody asked. "As I understand time travel, the effects of this incident should already have manifested themselves."

Dumbledore nodded. "You are correct, Alastor. Recognizing these effects for what they are will be part of our task. We will also have to anticipate what Harry may have done upon realizing what had happened to him."

Snape snorted. "For all we know, he got mugged or attacked by cheap bandits within a matter of a few hours and was killed."

Everyone shot withering glances at the greasy-haired potions master. Dumbledore chose to ignore the comment. "The Ministry will have records of strange occurrences happening, especially with regard to time travel," Dumbledore told everyone. "With the help of some of you who have Ministry connections, I think we will be able to thoroughly review those records within a few weeks."

"What happens if the Ministry doesn't have a record of anything happening?" Hagrid asked with concern evident in his gravelly voice.

"We'll look for other records," Dumbledore answered. "Harry will have had to have run into someone of some significance at some point. I should think he would be in someone's record. After all, we must remember that he was without a wand and supplies. He would have attempted at some point to find a way to return to the future."

"What if he decided that he likes the past better?" Ron muttered quietly. "He might like a world where Voldemort doesn't exist yet."


	3. Ailing Founders

_**Chapter Three: Ailing Founders**_

The Order meeting had ended several hours ago and everyone had left with various assignments as to what sort of records to check. Dumbledore wanted to focus on the Ministry records, but had allowed other people to volunteer to check records they thought might be profitable.

One Order member who worked in Diagon Alley and was acquainted with Mr. Ollivander had volunteered to ask him if there was a way to find out if Harry had bought a wand sometime in the past. The Ollivander family had been making wands for several centuries and Dumbledore agreed that it was a good bet. The only condition he laid down was that they had to avoid letting anyone know that Harry Potter was somewhere in the past. That made that particular assignment quite difficult.

Because of the limited accommodations at Mad-Eye Moody's small house, the sleeping space was limited. Ron, Ginny, and Hermione found themselves sleeping on the floor of the living room in sleeping bags that had been conjured for them.

With the information that Harry had become a victim of time travel fresh in their minds, the teens had been unable to sleep and were discussing the possible ramifications of this. Hermione had been trying to be as optimistic as possible. "If you think about this, we could now have a tremendous advantage against Voldemort," she announced to Ron and Ginny.

Ginny was curious to know what Hermione was thinking, but Ron was still in a rather dark mood about the whole situation. "I don't see how you figure that."

Ginny could understand Ron's feelings to a degree. Ron had always lived in the shadows of his older brothers. They had been nice to him, with the occasional exception of a prank or two involving spiders.

Going to Hogwarts and becoming Harry's best friend had really been a boost for Ron. The famous Harry Potter who in Ron's mind trumped any of his older brother's accomplishments treated him as an equal. Ron had always reacted to signs that Harry might be leaving him behind with anger and resentment. He now feared that Harry had travelled to the past and started an entirely new life and might not want to come back.

"I bet Harry has done or is doing everything in his power to return," Ginny said casually. These days, she avoided praising Harry in front of others. She had gotten enough grief in the past for her hero-worship of him. In the past she would have said that automatically and twice as fervently, but now she feared she was saying it more for Ron's sake. How would Harry react? I reckon he's lonely and sad, Ginny thought to herself. It's not as if being an orphan is bad enough.

Hermione was quick to pick up on Ginny's comment and build on it. "What else would he do? If Voldemort can send someone to the past with magic, surely someone can be sent to the future."

"Maybe he only went into the past a few decades," Ginny speculated. "He could have made a fortune with what he knew about the future and be someone we already know."

"Like who?" Ron asked.

This left Ginny at a loss. She couldn't think of anyone older that she knew who had Harry's temperament and mood. Her theory was further dashed by the thought that if Harry was around, he would have come forward almost instantly.

Hermione and Ginny gave up for the night. They both knew Ron well enough to know that he would eventually get over it and be twice as excited as them in a few days about the possibilities.

Ron successfully sulked himself to sleep while Hermione continued to think rapidly of all the different resources she could look at to find clues about Harry's fate. In the end she settled on her favorite standby, "Hogwarts, A History," and blissfully fell asleep. Ginny put herself to sleep as she fantasized about all the things Harry might do given certain opportunities.

Morning soon came and at breakfast Mrs. Weasley informed them that it had been decided that they would be returning home to the Burrow. Hermione was free to come along with them, but she declined as she remembered that she had practically promised her parents she would not be gone the entire summer.

They soon were packed and ready to depart. Hermione informed Ron and Ginny that she would be stopping off at Flourish and Blots soon to pick up some history books to peruse for the rest of the summer. If she didn't find Harry in them, she would at least have a better understanding of the possible time periods they might find him in.

Ron didn't look terribly excited at the thought of reading. Making up wild ideas was more his idea of research. Ginny was afraid that she might not have the opportunity to do some real research until returning to Hogwarts, but was planning to at least look at the books they had lying around the Burrow. She knew of the diary of at least one of their ancestors. Maybe Harry had introduced himself to the Weasley family at one point.

"Be sure to keep in contact with me," Hermione instructed Ron and Ginny. "I'll write you often about what I've found."

Ginny nodded graciously. "Of course we'll write, Hermione. We'll look forward to seeing you on the Hogwarts Express."

They all hugged each other and then left to go to their respective homes.

~!~!~!~!

Once Harry recovered from the rather nasty shock he had received by hearing Godric Gryffindor identify himself, he had the devil of a time trying to explain to the aged founder that he was in fact a time traveler. He eventually succeeded with the help of some truth spells.

"What I want to know," Godric declared, "is how a Dark wizard managed to find a spell capable of sending you to the past."

"I haven't a clue," Harry said in an exasperated voice.

"Do you have any idea how complicated and serious that is?"

Harry didn't really know enough about magic to realize that. "I'm sure that it's a serious thing, but really, all we have to do is send me back to the future and everything is fine, right?"

Godric shook his head negatively. "I don't know a single time travel spell, let alone one that can send someone into the future. I've heard of time travel, but it's a rather obscure art and rarely studied or even thought about."

"You're a Founder!" Harry exclaimed. "You're supposed to be all knowing or something. Supposedly all the ancient magic is the really powerful stuff that can do anything."

"Someone has been telling you a bunch of malarkey," Godric muttered. "Although, I will admit that ancient magic is far more advanced. You just haven't arrived in an ancient enough time."

"I just travelled a thousand years or so into the past and you're saying this isn't ancient?"

Godric was getting a little annoyed with Harry, but he could hardly blame him for his ignorance. "In the times of Atlantis, Greece, Egypt, and Rome there was terribly powerful magic. Those were the glory days. Now, we're in the Dark Years. We have renegade wizards running amok, the Muggle nobles have a war every other month with their neighbor, and most everybody is lucky if they can find enough food to survive. The state of magic is rather primitive. Furthermore, I don't know what England is like in your century, but right now we're kind of out on the far side of the world and rather behind everyone else."

Harry sighed heavily. "All right, I'm sorry. I've just got to get back to the future or the wizard who sent me here is going to create a lot of trouble."

"Be patient Harry," Godric said. "We have nearly a thousand years to figure this out."

Harry wasn't very amused.

"We need to get out of here," Godric announced. "Those Muggle villagers are going to get their bravery up soon and charge this place. They aren't terribly fond of magical people, probably because we always end up victimizing them. I can take you to Hogwarts and you can consult Rowena about this. She knows a lot more about magic than I do."

Harry felt that avoiding getting killed by Muggle villagers was a rather good idea. He also relished the fact that he had just met Godric Gryffindor and was going to have a personal interview with Rowena Ravenclaw. Hermione would be green with envy. "Would Slytherin or Hufflepuff know anything?"

Godric glanced at Harry and arched an eyebrow as he stood up and prepared to leave and Harry remembered that there might be hard feelings between Slytherin and Gryffindor. "They're both dead. What house were you in while at Hogwarts?"

"Gryffindor," Harry replied quickly, and seeing that Gryffindor was in doubt he quickly added the fact that he had at one time drawn his sword out of the Sorting Hat. This seemed to impress Godric and they were on their way.

Godric double Apparated them to the Hogwarts gates and Harry got his first glimpse of the Hogwarts castle as it had stood when somewhat just recently built. He was able to conclude that time had only made it more impressive.

"I was out checking the villages hoping to find more students," Godric explained to Harry as they made their way up to the castle entrance. "We have a book that records the names of children born with magical ability, but Rowena only developed that a few years ago. The names we have are too young. I was quite excited when I spotted you unknowingly employing a translation spell to talk to those men in the pub and then a banishing spell. You must be a very powerful."

"I'm afraid that I never thought about how powerful I might be in relation to others," Harry confessed. "In classes I just tried to do my best and learn each spell. I was talented in the Defense Against the Dark Arts class, though."

They entered the castle and Harry discovered that a few things had changed over a thousand years. The floor plan was slightly different and a few things were missing. He supposed that as time had passed Hogwarts had gone under renovation and possibly had some additions.

They climbed a rather long staircase that Harry recognized as being all the moving staircases put together and not moving around. Eventually they arrived in front of a door down a hallway that Harry was not familiar with. Godric knocked and hearing the muffled response from inside, opened it and entered with Harry behind him.

The office of Rowena Ravenclaw was very elegant though in some ways sparse. It was a large rectangle. The long sides had the occasional window, but for the most part were covered with built in book shelves and cabinets. The one short side was dominated by a fireplace and the other was almost entirely made of windows that overlooked the Forbidden Forest.

There was an extremely large rectangular desk closer to the wall of windows and entrance that Rowena Ravenclaw sat at. She was sitting in a chair and hunched over several open books and parchments scattered across the surface of the desk. She looked up as they entered the room.

"Did you have any success, Godric?" she asked politely, looking pointedly at Harry.

"I'm afraid not," Godric answered as Harry studied the woman.

Rowena Ravenclaw's bright white hair was evidence that she was far older than Godric, though there was a vitality in her eyes that made Harry doubt she was anywhere near death's door.

"We have a rather complicated situation to discuss," Godric told the woman.

Rowena gestured vaguely toward the fireplace where three comfortable looking chairs appeared. "Just give me a few more minutes and I'll join you," she instructed.

Before long, they were sipping from goblets of pumpkin juice as Harry explained as much as he could about getting sent by way of time travel to the past. Godric interrupted occasionally to make sure Harry clarified one point or another. Rowena only listened, looking Harry in the eyes the whole time.

Harry soon concluded his tale of woe. "I was hoping you might know of a way to send me back to the future."

Rowena stared into her goblet for several minutes before answering. "I know of no spell to send a person to the future," she told Harry, not unkindly.

Harry sighed in defeat.

Ravenclaw was not done speaking though. "My lack of knowledge doesn't mean there isn't a way that now exists or could be engineered to return you to where you belong. If you wish to return to the future you will have to seek out someone who has become a master of time travel or you will have to learn yourself. Perhaps you will be lucky. Hogwarts is becoming a great center for learning. Someone who can help you might come to us."

"I wouldn't even know where to start to figure that out for myself," Harry said.

Ravenclaw nodded sympathetically. "If you have to do it yourself it could take years. You'd have to be patient. I realize that it's not the quick fix, but it's better than never returning."

Harry had no choice but to agree.

Godric spoke up. "In the meantime, you could stay here at Hogwarts. You're a powerful wizard and could go far. If you want, you could be my apprentice. You'd learn plenty and eventually might be able to travel back to the future."

Harry thought this sounded like a pretty good idea. He always enjoyed his time at Hogwarts and always regretted going home for the holidays. He wouldn't even have to attend normal classes; at least that's what it sounded like.

"What kind of magic do you specialize in?" Harry asked Gryffindor.

Godric smiled grimly. "Offense Against the Dark."

~!~!~!

The Hogwarts Express was nearly ready to leave. Ron and Ginny had failed to spot Hermione anywhere on the platform so they assumed that she had already boarded or was running late. Concern that they might not get a compartment to themselves prompted them to board and claim a compartment if Hermione had not already done so.

They managed to drag their luggage on with them ended up finding Hermione about halfway down the train. Eventually, the train was under way and the teens wasted no time in bringing up the subject of Harry.

None of them had found out anything. Hermione was particularly frustrated as she had searched a lot of books that she was confident should have had answers. Ginny was frustrated because she had hardly been able to search any books and Ron was annoyed because he didn't want to have to search history books in the first place.

"Has the Order found anything at all?" Hermione asked Ron and Ginny, knowing that they had a higher chance of hearing that sort of news.

"Mum claims that nothing has been found," Ginny sighed.

"Ginny thinks that Mum is not telling us everything," Ron told Hermione.

Hermione wasn't so suspicious. "I'm sure you would have heard something if anyone had found anything remotely interesting."

"Maybe," Ron said doubtfully. Over a month had gone by since Harry had gone missing, and Ron was beginning to wonder if they would ever find him.

However, out of the three of them, Ginny seemed to be the most depressed over the fact that Harry was missing. This was largely because she couldn't help dwelling on how Harry must be feeling in whatever situation he had found himself in. She told Ron and Hermione something to that effect. "I keep thinking of how lonely he must be and how I would handle it."

This gave Hermione an idea. "We could theorize about what he would do in each time period and then that could tell us where we might find clues."

"How is that supposed to work?" Ron asked.

"It's easy!" Hermione said brightly. "Imagine that Harry found himself somewhere in the past fifty years. He eventually figures out that he travelled through time and he needs help to return to the future. What would he do?"

"Go to Dumbledore." Ginny said.

"Exactly," Hermione said. "If that was the case, Dumbledore would have already known this was going to happen and the Order wouldn't be in the dark about Harry's whereabouts. In fact, he would have been able to prevent the death of Harry's parents. Since that isn't the case, we can conclude that Harry went farther than fifty years."

Hermione went for her trunk and retrieved some parchment, ink, and a quill to take notes as they theorized. This proved to be a thought provoking activity, and in some cases quite fun as some utterly outrageous theories emerged.

Just as the exercise had become extremely difficult from a lack of knowledge about the magical world as it was five hundred or so years in the past, they were interrupted by Neville Longbottom.

"I heard about Harry," Neville said. "Do you know if there's any news about his whereabouts?"

Ron took the lead and showing some discretion informed Neville that they hadn't heard anything definite. He had remembered that Dumbledore wasn't too anxious for everyone to know that Harry was in the past.

Neville expressed his regrets about the situation and hope that Harry might be found. He then brought up the real reason for visiting their compartment. "Were you planning to restart Dumbledore's Army by chance?"

This question caught the three by surprise. "I'm not sure, Neville." Hermione answered. "To be honest, we haven't thought about it that much. I'm pretty sure that they have gotten rid of Umbridge for the Defense professor."

"I realize that," Neville said defensively. "I was just thinking that as we do have V-v-voldemort breathing down our necks a little extra practice and instruction couldn't hurt.

Ron and Hermione still felt a little guilty about the trouble that Dumbledore's Army had gotten Professor Dumbledore into the previous year and were thus quite unsure about restarting it without consulting him first.

Ron didn't want to let anyone down though and thought it couldn't hurt to drum up more support for the cause among the students. At least they would be against Voldemort if not fully able to fight Death Eaters. "I'm thinking that we'll talk to Dumbledore tonight or tomorrow and ask him what he thinks. We might be able to work something out."

This response seemed to satisfy Neville for the time being and he left. His departure was followed by discussion between Ron, Hermione, and Ginny about potential options for the upcoming year. They were interrupted several more times by former DA members who asked the same question as Neville. Some of those who stopped by were students who had not previously been members.

Ron soon got into the swing of answering their questions and by the time the train arrived at its destination had a standard reply that made it sound as if everything was already decided and that all they had to do was set it up with Professor Dumbledore. Hermione was into it as well, but Ginny was a little amused at it all.

They rode up to the castle in the carriages pulled by thestrals and soon found themselves in the Great Hall at Hogwarts awaiting the arrival of the first years who needed to be Sorted into their individual houses. During the Sorting, Ginny noticed that many of the students were inconspicuously shooting glances toward them. She assumed that they were looking for Harry and wondering about his status. The Daily Prophet had initially made a big thing of his disappearance, but as the weeks wore on, everyone had lost interest.

The Sorting over, Dumbledore stood as was custom and began to go over the various announcements. To the surprise of nearly every student there, he announced that Professor Snape would be assuming the Defense Against the Dark Arts position. Snape had been replaced as the potions professor by a young woman that Ron seemed to enjoy ogling much to Hermione's disgust and Ginny's amusement. The food eventually distracted him.

The feast eventually ended and instead of making their way to their dorms as every other student was in the process of doing, the three made their way to Professor Dumbledore's office. Their haste was such that they were waiting at the gargoyle when Dumbledore himself arrived.

"I thought you might approach me soon," he said, his blue eyes twinkling. "Come on up with me."

They opted to get the issue of Dumbledore's Army out of the way. It was Hermione who spoke. "Professor, we have been approached by several former members of Dumbledore's Army asking about our intentions for this year."

Professor Dumbledore sighed. "I don't know how good of an idea it is."

Ron and Hermione quickly ran over all the positive things that had come from the association the year previous and Hermione eloquently presented all the reasons why it should continue this year.

"I'm sure that Professor Snape will do a fine job of teaching Defense this year," Dumbledore pointed out. "He after all is eminently qualified for the position. I've personally reviewed what he will be teaching and I'm confident you will not be disappointed"

The teens persisted until Dumbledore caved in and promised he would look into resuming the Dueling Club that Gilderoy Lockhart had unsuccessfully tried to initiate in Ron and Hermione's second year in lieu of the organization they had engineered during the previous school year.

This satisfied them and Ron brought up the real reason for their visit. "Have you found anything about Harry?"

"I'm afraid not," Dumbledore admitted. "We've turned up blanks everywhere we looked. How has your search gone?"

Hermione was eager to report on her progress and outlined the books she had read and even provided a list of the book she intended to read alongside the notes she had taken on the train about their theories. Dumbledore examined her notes and told her which ones he had already had covered, but encouraged her to keep on with the other resources.

"It occurs to me," Dumbledore said, "that no matter what time period Harry arrived in, he might have at least attempted to go to Hogwarts." It seemed that even he had caught the spirit of speculation that Ron, Hermione, and Ginny had employed on the train.

"I've covered that possibility," Hermione told him. "I carefully read Hogwarts, A History from cover to cover."

Hermione's comment was followed by an extremely loud and rude snort of disgust. Everybody jerked their head to look in the direction that it came from. Even Dumbledore seemed shocked. Their eyes simultaneously landed on one of the many portraits of former headmasters and headmistresses. While most of the portraits appeared to be asleep, the occupant of the portrait in question was awake and had a severely disgusted look on his face.

When Dumbledore had ascertained which portrait had snorted, he leapt up from the chair behind his desk and walked over to it, examining the name plate screwed onto the frame. "Headmaster Edward Drake Blood," he read aloud. He looked the portrait in the eye. "I don't believe I've ever seen you awake before nor had the chance to speak to you."

"Everything that happens in this office is so boring," Professor Blood said, punctuating his comment with a yawn.

"I see," Dumbledore said carefully. "Suppose you tell us why you have so much contempt for Hogwarts, A History."

Professor Blood looked Dumbledore in the eye. "The book is a complete pile of rubbish! If I were you, I would gather all the copies in this school and burn them. The idiot headmaster who wrote it hardly consulted any factual records." With a jerk of his head he gestured toward the portrait of the particular headmaster he was referring to. Said portrait was pretending very hard to be oblivious to the conversation.

Hermione was outraged. "How dare you! I bet you haven't even read it!"

Ron was trying to hide his laughter, but when the portrait informed Hermione that she was a dimwit, he got rather offended on her behalf. Ginny started snickering and thought she detected a slight smile from Dumbledore.

Dumbledore managed to remain a gentleman despite the portrait's somewhat rough manner. "Perhaps you could refer us to a factual record," he suggested.

"All right," Professor Blood agreed. "Go consult Hogwarts THE History."

"No such book exists," Hermione declared with her fists on her hips. She even went so far as to stick her tongue out at the portrait causing Ginny to burst into laughter. "I've checked the library for every book on Hogwarts history."

Professor Blood was quick to imitate Hermione's pose. "The said book is not located in the Hogwarts library," he snidely informed her. "It is kept in the kitchens."

"What dimwit keeps a book in the kitchens?" Ron retorted, trying to defend Hermione.

Professor Blood rolled his eyes at Ron and then explained. "The Founders commissioned the house elves to record and maintain Hogwarts THE History. As the house elves are relegated to the kitchens and the book is in their keeping, it must of necessity be kept in the kitchens."

Both Ron and Hermione were feeling rather stupid at this point. Dumbledore was shocked though. He had never known that such a history was kept and maintained by the house elves.

Before anyone could reply, the portrait asked a question of its own. "Why are you even poking your noses into history in the first place? I thought you young people were allergic to it."

Dumbledore saw this as an opportunity to possibly find something out about Harry. He quickly explained about someone who had been involved in an incident of time travel and they were trying to find out where he went. They hoped to find some record of him.

"I don't think you'll ever find anything," Professor Blood informed them, yawning yet again.

"Why not?" Ginny asked, not wanting to admit that this could be true.

"The Ministry zealously restricts time travel, the study of it, and covers up any occurrences as best it can. The Department of Mysteries was originally created almost for that sole purpose." Professor Blood told them. "Those tyrants even refused to admit to the general public that such a thing as time travel existed for the longest time."

Dumbledore quickly explained that he had already been given access to the archives and examined the details of several incidents of time travel. He was trying to assure the teens as much as he was trying to inform the portrait.

Ginny was confused about the Ministry's behavior. "Why would they do that?"

"It's quite simple, really," Hermione told Ginny. "Time travel is an extremely dangerous thing for a person to engage in. You have no idea what sort of disasters could occur if something went wrong. The Ministry has to regulate it to protect everyone."

The portrait snorted yet again. Hermione spun around to confront Professor Blood. "Do you have a problem?" she growled.

"You truly are a dimwit, aren't you?"

Hermione replied with a profanity.

"Restricting time travel to protect society may or may not be a good thing," Professor Blood said. "However, the Ministry started restricting it for the sole purpose of protecting their power. It's no coincidence that the Department of Mysteries was created within weeks of Lord Darkbane's suicide."

Dumbledore did not want to appear ignorant, but he could tell that the Lord Darkbane spoken of must have some tie to time travel and he had never heard of him before. "Could you tell us more about Lord Darkbane?"

The portrait looked at Dumbledore for several moments before responding. "You have never heard of Lord Darkbane and you call yourself the Headmaster of Hogwarts?"

Dumbledore tried to keep his composure as best he could. "I'm afraid not. I was hoping that you would enlighten me."

Professor Edward Blood scowled at everyone except Ginny who had somehow managed to avoid his wrath. "Go educate yourselves. It's in Hogwarts, THE History." With that, he laid his head back on the back of the chair in his portrait, went to sleep, and would not respond to further questions or in Hermione's case, insults.

There was silence for a few moments after it was determined that the portrait was not going to respond to them. Finally, Dumbledore spoke. "Professor Blood may have given us a valuable lead. I'm sure the house elves wouldn't mind if we paid them a visit right now."

With that, they all stood and exited the office, making their way toward the kitchens. They soon found themselves at the entrance and Dumbledore opened it to reveal the kitchens. They stepped in the kitchen and were soon surrounded by house elves asking what they would like to eat or drink.

Professor Dumbledore thanked the house elves for their desire to serve and then inquired if they might look at Hogwarts THE History. The house elves enthusiastically acquiesced to his request and soon the headmaster and three teens were looking at an extremely large tome that the house elves had wheeled out on a special stand with wheels.

"How often do you show people this history?" Professor Dumbledore asked.

"Never in my lifetime," squeaked a rather aged house elf.

"I see," Dumbledore said.

There was an awkward pause as the four looked at the tome and several house elves watched them look at it. Finally, the four realized that the house elves weren't going to leave. Professor Dumbledore flipped it open and began thumbing through the pages, marveling at the detailed record that had been kept by the house elves.

He finally opted to check for an index or table of contents as the tome was so large that it would literally take weeks to read it all. Ron, Hermione, and Ginny watched him check the index and turn to a page. Another moment or so passed and Dumbledore announced he had found it.

"Following the death of the last surviving Founder, Godric Gryffindor, Lord Darkbane became the first official Headmaster of Hogwarts and reigned for ninety-seven years."


	4. The Dark

_**Chapter Four: The Dark**_

"Ninety-seven years!" Hermione exclaimed. "That's an awfully long time to be headmaster."

Professor Dumbledore nodded in agreement. "I suspect that Lord Darkbane became headmaster at a very young age. Near the time of the Founders, Hogwarts was still quite new and not as prestigious. It would be entirely possible for someone in their thirties or even twenties to become Headmaster if he was closely connected with the Founders."

"Why do they call him Lord Darkbane?" Ron asked. "Shouldn't it be Professor Darkbane?"

"I'm not entirely sure," Dumbledore mused. "It could be that he was of noble birth. On the other hand, the record does say that he 'reigned.' That would imply that the title was not strictly an honorific."

Hermione presented another option. "Could he have been a Dark lord?"

"The name is Darkbane," Ron scoffed. "Obviously, he and the Dark did not get along very well.

Hermione disagreed. "It could be that he was the bane of something and happened to be Dark on top of that."

"What does the history say?" Ginny sensibly asked Dumbledore, effectively providing a way to end the argument. She reckoned that the house elves would have recorded more than a few bare details. Even if they never went directly into covering Lord Darkbane's biography, they surely would have at least covered some of his acts and how they had affected Hogwarts.

Professor Dumbledore referred back to the extraordinarily sized tome and skimmed the contents. As he did so, he read aloud or paraphrased the occasional snippet. All the brief excerpts Dumbledore read aloud for the sake of the teens ran together to form a basic summary of the history of Lord Darkbane.

"There are many theories as to Lord Darkbane's origin, but all are unreliable. Written records indicate that he was serving as a Professor of Magic at the time of Godric Gryffindor's death. The Hogwarts staff and student body unanimously hailed Lord Darkbane as Headmaster following the aforementioned Founder's death despite protests from the magical government that he was unqualified."

"Though Lord Darkbane never furnished a record of his academic qualifications, it was clear to all who came in contact with him that he was an extremely powerful and skilled wizard. There are many reports of his alleged talents and abilities. Most seem to agree that Lord Darkbane had mastered the magic behind time travel as a result of his obsession with the subject. A few others indicated that he may have gone beyond even that and had the ability to twist the fabric of reality itself."

"Lord Darkbane's contributions to the British people in general were many. He helped to establish order in Britain and was responsible for the demise of many Dark wizards. Unfortunately, as time passed, he found himself at odds with the magical government more often than not."

"One Minister of Magic went so far as to accuse Lord Darkbane of using time travel to attempt to subvert the Ministry. Whether the accusation was true or not is still debatable. Lord Darkbane never deigned to reply to the accusation. An investigation was never launched because his power and influence rendered him immune to any inquiry."

"The end of Lord Darkbane's administration was the end of an era. When it ended, the result was the death of Hogwart's last tie to its Founders. Some have gone so far as to say that he was practically the Fifth Founder as his contributions to the school came close to equaling that of the Founders themselves."

There was silence as Ron, Ginny, Hermione, and Professor Dumbledore absorbed this information. Ron was the first to speak. "Lord Darkbane knew all about time travel and he and the Ministry didn't get along. If the Ministry doesn't know anything about Harry time travelling, maybe Lord Darkbane did."

"It's a possibility," Dumbledore conceded slowly. "I am confident that Harry would have been forced to seek out someone acquainted with the subject of time travel as he knows nothing of it himself. If anything, I have discovered from my recent inquiries that there have not been many who had the ability to travel through time."

Hermione was quick to jump on the bandwagon. "We need to find out more about Lord Darkbane. Perhaps he kept records."

"I doubt it," Professor Dumbledore responded. "Even if he did, they aren't accessible to anybody. Someone as prominent as he was would be in every history book if there were any."

Ginny surprised herself and spoke up. "I realize that Lord Darkbane is only one possibility among many, but I'd be willing to research him some more to see if there are any clues about Harry's whereabouts. It can't hurt to check while you and the rest of the Order check other places."

The last weeks of summer had been hard on her. Everyone in the Order had been diligently searching history records and investigating possibilities, but she had hardly had any opportunities. Her desire to help ran deeper than the typical motivations that drove others to participate in causes. As a result of the Chamber of Secrets, she owed Harry a life-debt.

"All three of us could research Lord Darkbane," Hermione told Professor Dumbledore. "If there are records, they'd probably be right here at Hogwarts. We're in the perfect position for this project."

Dumbledore was a sensible man and promptly agreed to this. "I'll let you three look into Lord Darkbane then. I'll get you permission to search the Restricted Section if need be. Be sure to report to me if you find anything significant."

They thanked the house elves for their service and departed from the kitchens, Professor Dumbledore to return to his office and the teens to go to Gryffindor Tower for the night.

A fierce thunderstorm had settled into the area surrounding Hogwarts. It and the accompanying rain fit the mood of the Hogwart's inhabitants like a glove. When Harry had originally taken up residence at Hogwarts with the last two Founders, things had been calm and peaceful. Harry had rather enjoyed not having to worry about Lord Voldemort or the Dursleys.

Several years had passed since that point and Harry had even enjoyed those—aside from his homesickness for his friends and worry of what Voldemort might be doing to them. The desire to return to the future weighed on him greatly, but the Founders had kept him too busy to worry about often. Godric often reminded him that as there was nothing he could about the situation at the moment, he might as well forget it.

Godric spent at least an hour every day tutoring Harry and as a result, Harry had learned a great deal of magic that he had not even realized was possible. He had also learned that all magic didn't necessarily include pointing a wand at something and saying an incantation. Often, the incantation wasn't necessary. As Harry had gotten stronger and more experienced, he had found that he could combine spells or even create them.

Rowena had invested a good amount of time teaching Harry the Runic alphabet and language that still prevailed in many places throughout England, but most especially in the texts that Harry would have to consult if he was ever to find a way to the future. She further taught him Arithmancy as it would be necessary for Harry to use if he had to figure out a way to the future on his own.

The most important thing Harry had learned from the two Founders was the ability to learn on his own. Though Harry would never be nearly as diligent as Hermione when it came to education, he had learned how to seek learning and develop new skills without help.

Gryffindor and Ravenclaw were too aged and disinterested to participate in duels, but Harry had in his spare time taken to learning about the fighting arts and even having mock duels with the occasional student that happened to have talent. He did not know how good he had become at it, but he knew that he was at the very least better than he had been.

Harry now stood in front of window watching the rain and lightning darkening the afternoon. For the past several months, Harry and the Founders had been hearing rumors of goblin rebellions, vampire attacks, and worst of all, Dark uprisings.

Unrest had come to Hogwarts itself when Ravenclaw's daughter had come to visit her mother. Harry had instantly been able to tell that the relationship between them was tense, but had not expected the visit to end with Rowena's daughter stealing a valued possession. Things had only gotten worse when a local nobleman had taken it upon himself to pursue the daughter and ended up killing her in Albania. The nobleman had met his death on the way home. The ghosts of both now haunted the castle.

Ravenclaw's health had been broken by the grief associated with the aforementioned incidents. She was now ill enough that the nurse from the castle's hospital wing had to spend nearly every waking hour tending to the ailing Founder. This had left a great many responsibilities for Godric to handle, and he had become too busy to tutor Harry on a daily basis.

A small cough caused Harry to turn around from the window. Standing there was one of the prefects and a rain-soaked man that Harry didn't recognize. "Pardon the interruption," the female prefect said to Harry, "but this man just arrived and insists that it's necessary to speak to Master Gryffindor or Mistress Ravenclaw."

Harry looked at the man curiously. The man immediately spoke. "It's imperative that I speak to one of them. There's trouble."

"All right," Harry said. "I'll take you up to Godric's office." He turned to thank the prefect, but then realized that he didn't know her name. As a sort of apprentice to the Founders, Harry did not eat or sleep with the students, neither did he teach them. Consequently, he hardly knew any of them. None of them quite knew how to treat Harry. Most of them acted like he was a sort of secretary for the Founders.

He settled on a quick "thank you" for the prefect before leading the man up to Godric Gryffindor's office, the same one that Albus Dumbledore would use several centuries in the future.

They soon entered the office to find Godric dozing in the chair behind his desk. His hair was now a solid grey and his face looked far more aged. Harry hated to wake him, but Harry had decided that the matter was probably imperative.

At a poke from Harry, Godric started from his nap. "I'm sorry about waking you, Godric," Harry explained. "This fellow says he needs to talk to you."

Godric spotted the man in question and nodded. He seemed to have recognized him. "I'll speak to him." He picked up a sheaf of papers from the desk that had been folded, sealed, and addressed. "I don't suppose I could convince you to take these to the owlery for me?"

Harry took the papers. "I'd be glad to." He then exited the office, went to the owlery, and dispatched several owls with the letters. He felt vaguely guilty for sending them out in the rain, but he supposed that they could always take shelter en route if the rain bothered them too much.

Having nothing better to do, Harry decided to return to Godric's office. He found the Founder alone. Apparently the man had already left. Upon looking at the Founder closer, Harry noticed that Godric looked a little pale.

"Is everything all right?"

Godric didn't directly answer the question. Instead he looked at Harry for several moments before doing anything. The close scrutiny made Harry feel uncomfortable. Godric then took a ring from his finger. It was gold and had a good sized ruby set in it. "Have you ever seen this before? I mean, did you ever see this ring in the future?"

Harry looked at the ring closely. He had only noticed in passing that Godric wore a ruby ring but had never given it much thought. He was absolutely sure that he had not seen it in the future, though. "I never saw that ring before I met you," Harry answered.

"Are you sure?" Godric asked intently. "You never saw this ring? Are you sure that the man you call Dumbledore didn't wear it?"

"Well, reasonably sure," Harry replied. He didn't remember seeing it before, but that didn't preclude the possibility that Professor Dumbledore possessed it.

With this information at hand, Godric seemed to come to a decision. "Sit down, Harry. I have a few things I need to tell you."

Harry sat and looked Godric in the eye, not sure what was about to happen.

"That man brought some bad news," Godric began slowly. "I've taught you how to fight against the Dark, but I've never spoken of the Dark itself to you. Occasionally, there is such a thing as a Dark wizard who dabbles in Dark magic and may or may not cause some grief for those around him. However, some of those Dark wizards can become so consumed by the Dark that they become Dark lords."

Godric then proceeded to educate Harry about Dark lords, Dark magic, and the dangers of them. Frankly, some of the things that Godric told Harry were frightening and unsettling. It made Harry kind of sick to think of these things, but at the same time, he found them interesting because they explained a lot of things about Voldemort.

"I hope that what I've taught you since you came here had served to show you that the Dark can be consumed and overpowered," Godric said, concluding his lecture.

Harry nodded as it was indeed the case. The Dark could provide a seemingly easy path to power, but he had learned that given some hard work and study, there were other things that were far more powerful.

"The reason I brought this is up is that another Dark lord has risen," Godric told Harry carefully. "He calls himself Lord Moridane. This is a serious situation for Hogwarts. Moridane is one of Slytherin's grandchildren and he has inherited one of the counterparts to this ring." He held up the ruby ring he had asked Harry about.

A somewhat confused expression painted Harry's face. "I'm not sure I understand what you're getting at."

"When Slytherin, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, and I founded Hogwarts, we tied all the magical enchantments and wards to four rings; there was one for each of us. Slytherin's ring, the one in Lord Moridane's possession, is still tied to Hogwarts. Do you see how serious this is?"

"Yes," said Harry slowly. "Isn't there a way to cut the ring off from Hogwarts?"

"We've tried several times," Gryffindor informed Harry. "There's nothing that can be done."

Harry winced.

"It is in the interest of the school that Lord Moridane be defeated and the ring taken from him," Godric told Harry. "I can't do it alone, James. I need your help."

"Of course I'll help," Harry reassured Godric. "Hogwarts is practically the only home I've known."

Godric smiled at Harry. "Thank you. There's another thing too."

"What is it?"

"I don't know much about time travel, but I do know at least one thing. What you experienced at Hogwarts before you actually travelled through time includes the effects of what you have done and will do here," Godric said carefully. "You said that in the future, your headmaster doesn't have this ring. If he doesn't have it, someone does. I think it's you."

Harry's mouth dropped open and it took him a moment to reply. "Surely you're kidding."

"I'm not, James. I and the other Founders, even Slytherin, wanted Hogwarts to last for a long time when we founded it. From my point of view, the only way to ensure this is to entrust it to you when I'm gone."

"There's still Rowena," Harry said weakly.

Godric looked Harry in the eye. "I think we both know that I'm going to outlive her. Assuming we can defeat and claim Slytherin's ring, when I die, you will have all four of the Founder's rings. I want you to keep Hogwarts safe for us and keep it true to the purpose that we founded it for."

I can't do that!" Harry exclaimed. "I'm going to return to the future. I really want to help you, but if I don't return, Voldemort will kill my friends and probably take over Hogwarts too."

Godric smiled as if he had already won the argument. "Then take the rings to the future with you. Hogwarts will maintain a status quo if the rings are out of circulation. When you return to the future, you'll have the rings and be more able to defend Hogwarts from your Dark lord and possibly even be able to defeat him."

Harry was very distressed despite Gyrffindor's reassurances. "I really need to return to the future. I've already spent more time here than I should have."

"James, you have all the time in the world," Godric said to Harry. "You haven't aged a day since you came here. Haven't you noticed?"

Harry had noticed, but had tried to attribute it to other things.

"As long as you aren't aging, putting your return off a little long won't hurt. Eventually things will die down and you'll be able to peacefully return to the future and be ten times more able to fight your Dark lord."

It took a lot more convincing on Gryffindor's part before Harry finally agreed to look after Hogwarts once the last Founder died. Harry agreed to do so out of a sense of duty and desire to do what was right. He didn't feel adequate, but Gryffindor reassured him that he would do fine. For comfort, Harry reminded himself that if things went well, he'd return to the future before having to do too much with Hogwarts in the past.

Their conversation was just coming to an end when they were interrupted by the school's nurse who barged into the office without knocking. Her face was pale and she was panting. "Rowena is dead," she breathed.

Harry felt a sick feeling in his gut, but Godric only looked resigned. "Thank you for informing me," he said. "I'll be up in a moment to look after things."

The nurse left and as she did, Godric opened a drawer in the desk and pulled out a small box. "I'm going to be gone from Hogwarts often in the coming month while I organize forces to fight against Lord Moridane. It's only common sense that I give you this." He pulled a ring with a yellow jewel out of the box and handed it to Harry. "That was Helga's ring."

Harry put the ring on and instantly an awareness of the entire castle descended on him. He could locate every secret passage, monitor every ward, and even spy on the students.

Gryffindor smiled. "A little overwhelming, isn't it? Don't worry, you'll only feel that when you focus on it and when you're within range of the castle. It's a boon for the sanity of the wearer and for our safety against Slytherin's ring. Surely you can see how important it is to take it from Moridane."

"Indeed," Harry muttered as he found a way to disconnect himself from the ring. Despite no longer being aware of every detail of the castle, he still felt the heavy weight of responsibility on his shoulders.

The war against Lord Moridane lasted for several years, though actual violence and fighting was only sporadic. Godric spent a great deal of time travelling to organize his various acquaintances into a sort of alliance to fight against Moridane. Harry spent most of his time at Hogwarts on guard duty in case Moridane came to Hogwarts unexpectedly.

Harry had Hufflepuff's ring and thus would be able to defend the castle against someone wearing Slytherin's ring long enough for Gryffindor to be summoned back. After Ravenclaw's death, the relationship between Harry and Godric had changed. Harry was no longer treated as a student or apprentice by Gryffindor.

At the beginning of the first semester following Rowena's death, Godric had assigned Harry to teach the first and second years Transfiguration and Potions. Harry had protested that he hardly knew anything about those subjects, but Gryffindor insisted that Harry would suffice and that eventually he'd find someone better qualified.

Harry wasn't a very popular teacher. He stuck largely to the textbook, and because he didn't do a masterful job of explaining concepts in class, students often had to spend more time on homework than they would have otherwise.

There was a great deal of contempt for Harry among the students as a consequence. Harry often walked into classrooms to find rude drawings of him alongside statements indicting him as Gryffindor's pet. It got so bad that Harry began to have a lot of empathy for Snape. The fellow teachers were somewhat hostile too. They were envious of Harry's position of trust with Gryffindor. As for both the students and teachers, it didn't help that Harry appeared to be only sixteen years old.

The first and second years were too shy to be rude to Harry's face, so Harry never realized how much he was disliked until he found himself standing in for Gryffindor in a seventh year Defense Against the Dark Arts class that he had actually been looking forward to teaching.

Harry had finished calling roll and was just starting into his lesson when he was interrupted by a loud cough. He looked up, found who had coughed, and then called on the student who happened to be Head Girl. "Yes, Miss Ollivander?"

"We were under the impression that you would just be here to supervise while we did homework from other classes," she informed Harry.

Harry was confused. "Godric told me that I was supposed continue your instruction with regard to advanced shielding charms."

Miss Mary Ollivander was not shy, nor did she pull her punches. "I'm sorry, but we were under the impression that you didn't know how to cast shield charms, or any other spell for that matter."

This caused outright laughter among the other students. Several made snide remarks that Harry could hear about his teaching abilities and what they'd end up doing.

"Are you saying that I'm not qualified to teach you?" Harry asked slowly.

"Yes," said Miss Ollivander. "I'm confident that I could teach this and any class in this school better than you."

Harry began to wonder if the Ollivander family had ever married into the Malfoy family. This girl was just about as irritating as one of them. After a few moments of looking around the class at the students who clearly did not hold an ounce of respect for him, Harry made a decision. "I'll make you a sporting offer," he announced loudly. "If any of you can best me in a duel, I'll let you teach the class. Volunteers?"

Naturally, it was Mary Ollivander who volunteered. Not even waiting, she stood and approached the front of the class, wand drawn. Harry noted that the wand must have been made by her parents or grandparents especially for her. He didn't think that he'd ever seen one so fine, especially compared to the one that the Founders had scrounged up for him upon his arrival several years previous.

He drew it, hoping that no one was looking at it too closely, but it was in vain. The girl looked at it and smirked, clearly communicating her opinion that his wand was trash. Harry ignored her and with a curt wave of the wand, the desks all moved, students still in them, to the sides of the room. Some of the students were surprised and perhaps even a little impressed.

He quickly made a token bow to the Ollivander girl. The two duelers then took up their positions, wands drawn, and in dueling stances. Harry's stance was one he had learned in the future, and as it was different, it caused a titter of laughter among the onlookers.

A student counted, and at the count of three they began.

Ollivander shot a strong stunning curse at Harry who casually stepped aside and rapidly shot two disarming curses that forced the girl to drop to the floor to dodge. Apparently she could have used Harry's planned lesson on shielding charms.

The curses slowly built up in intensity, at least on the part of Mary Ollivander. Harry's primary strategy was to dodge them and if possible, use simple curses to defeat her. Many of the students began to cheer for Ollivander, thinking that she was winning as she seemed to be putting on the better show.

She was pleased and broke her concentration to look at her fellow students. This prevented her from noticing Harry non-verbally place a slipping charm on the floor all around her.

Harry waited until she cast a particularly nasty hex in his direction and then rapidly shot half a dozen disarming charms while walking toward her. Naturally, the girl dodged and found herself face-down on the floor with the tip of Harry's second or third-hand wand jabbed into her neck. "I win," he said, almost coldly.

With the wand still jabbed into the Ollivander girl's neck and her face plastered to the floor, Harry looked at the class. "You will each be writing an essay on shielding charms, the difference between each extant version, and the theory behind each. It will be a minimum of five feet of parchment. I want it on my desk by tomorrow evening. If it is not satisfactory, you will be having an extra defense class with me on the subject during your next Hogsmeade weekend. You'd better get started now. Class dismissed."

Harry released the girl. She and the rest of the students evacuated the room leaving Harry alone in the space between the cleared desks. He was already feeling guilty. "Snape would be proud," he muttered to himself.

This changed Harry's status in the castle considerably. The teachers had even more contempt for Harry and the students outright feared him. From the corner of his eye, Harry caught Mary Ollivander shooting glances of outright hatred in his direction more than once. Harry's guilt and the fear of turning into Snape that it gave birth to drove him to become a better teacher. Within a month, Harry was at least as good as the other mediocre professors.

Harry continued to teach Defense classes often as Gryffindor's absences began to become longer and more frequent. Though Harry was feared and in some cases hated, the students began to develop respect for his talents in the area of Defense. Within a couple of months, he was regarded as being nearly as good as Gryffindor.

Harry would have preferred to be loved. The distance between him and everyone else in the era of time had caused heartache for him, and an increased desire to return to the future to be with his friends. He found himself missing some of the people he had not even known as well. For some reason, he found himself thinking of Ginny often. As he came into contact with more and more people, he began to realize that she was a very admirable girl.

Fate soon gave Harry a chance to redeem himself in the hearts of at least the students. The Christmas holidays arrived and most of the students and professors went home. Harry was left with a few of the more aging and almost senile teachers and about two dozen students.

The best thing about the holiday was that Harry did not have to teach any classes. He had therefore shut himself up in his office and was attempting to decipher an ancient manuscript from Egypt that had a few mentions of time travel.

Upon the death of Rowena Ravenclaw, Gryffindor had assigned Harry her office and quarters, a further point of envy for his fellow professors and teachers. Harry particularly liked the office, mostly because it was out of the way.

He was drawn from his study of the manuscript by someone urgently knocking on his door. "Come in!" he called, hoping that the visitor could hear him through the door.

The door burst open and admitted Mary Ollivander. Her robes and hair were in disarray and she was sobbing. She approached Harry's desk. "Professor, you've got to help me. Please."

Harry was surprised at her condition, but most of all at her calling him "Professor." Thus far, she was the first student to do that. "What do you need?" he asked, trying to be kind.

There was a bit more sobbing and blubbering before the girl could get it out. "My brother Tim has been kidnapped. We were in Hogsmeade and having drinks at the Hog's Head when two men grabbed him and used a Portkey to take him."

"Kidnapped?" Harry said slowly. "I don't understand. Who would want to kidnap your brother?" Tim Ollivander was a second year and one of the students that Harry liked more.

The girl sobbed that she didn't know and that she was sorry for everything she had ever done to Harry and begged him to hurry. Harry was perfectly willing to help, but she wasn't giving him enough information. The situation did sound urgent though.

Harry drew his wand. "Look into my eyes," he instructed. The girl was crying too hard and repeating her pleas to notice. He repeated the command loudly and she finally did. He was able to use his amateur Legilimency skills to get enough details about the incident to ascertain that the kidnappers were Lord Moridane's followers. They probably thought to hold an Ollivander child hostage to get more wands for Lord Moridane's forces.

Harry was unsure what to do. He didn't feel right leaving the castle. Gryffindor was gone as usual. He concluded that it was an extraordinary situation. Using his Founder ring, he ascertained the status of the wards and found a way to set them to alert him should anyone cross the perimeter.

Harry stood and used a Summoning charm to fetch his cloak. Mary Ollivander was still sobbing and saying all sorts of things that Harry didn't quite understand. He grabbed her and got her attention again. "Go tell everyone in the castle that they aren't to leave. If anyone crosses the perimeter, I'll have to come back regardless of whether I've rescued your brother.

The girl nodded and Harry made to leave, but she stopped him. She held out her valued wand. "You can take it if you want," she said.

"I appreciate it, but I'm used to mine," Harry said. "I'll be back soon."

When Lord Moridane's uprising had begun, Godric had keyed his own ring and Hufflepuff's ring to be able to go through the Anti-Apparition wards on the castle. Thus, Harry was able to Disapparate from his office to the Hog's Head.

From there, he was able to trace the Portkey that had taken the Ollivander child away from Hogsmeade. Harry followed and found himself in what would later be identified as Lord Moridane's principal base of operations. There, he came face to face with some of the horrors that the Dark can inflict on its victims.

Anger nearly consumed Harry that night and took him to the Dark. It was all Harry could do to grab the Ollivander child and Apparate back to Hogwarts where his anxious sister was awaiting.

Upon seeing her brother safe, Mary Ollivander let out a cry of joy and after hugging him, began thanking Harry profusely. Harry was too shaken to acknowledge anything. Though there was nothing particularly wrong with Tim Ollivander, he instructed Mary to take him down to the hospital wing to get them out of his office.

They left and instead of returning to his manuscript, Harry took a seat in front of the fireplace and was consumed in thought. When he had told Gryffindor that he knew that the Dark was no good, he had thought he had known what he was talking about. He had not had a clue. He had known the dance steps, but had not really heard the music.

Harry now knew in excruciating detail that anything Dark was the enemy and how important it was to fight it. Too many took the struggle casually. Few there were who understood how serious the situation was. What scared Harry the most though, was how close he had come to being consumed by the Dark through the spirit of anger. Ginny Weasley would later come close to that same brink. Only then, and only to her would Harry ever reveal what he had seen and felt that night.


	5. The Bane of the Dark

_**Chapter Five: The Bane of the Dark**_

Before the Christmas holidays ended, the Ollivander family in its entirety came to thank Harry personally for his rescuing of their youngest son. Harry was rather embarrassed. The parents were especially dignified and thankful, but Mary Ollivander couldn't stop singing his praises.

"James of London" had become her favorite professor overnight and she practically worshipped him. Her attentions were enough to make Harry long for the days when all he had to deal with was Colin Creevey.

One positive aspect of her opinion was that as soon as the next term started, Harry became the favorite professor of every student in the school. They all went out of their way to be nice to him and pay attention in classes. This in turn resulted in Harry becoming an even more competent teacher. Harry continued to be unpopular with the other teachers, but that was mostly envy and pride on their parts.

The night of Tim Ollivander's rescue had changed Harry. During the first years of the war with Lord Moridane, he had been satisfied to sit at Hogwarts and passively keep it safe. He began to proactively make contributions to fighting against the Dark lord.

Gryffindor who was tiring from his efforts began to let Harry take his place at some of the necessary meetings and on some of the missions that targeted Lord Moridane's forces. Harry soon was regarded as a highly competent wizard by many people throughout Britain. Previously, he had practically been unknown by anyone outside of Hogwart's gates.

The war came to a long awaited end one November. Harry was nearly thirty years old, though he still looked as if he wasn't a day over sixteen. Harry and Godric had hatched a plan to lure Lord Moridane to Hogwarts where the Dark lord would be ambushed and hopefully killed or captured.

Through intelligence activities, they had accidentally leaked information that both Harry and Godric often both left the castle unguarded. Their plan was to pretend that Godric was out of the country and have Harry leave the castle. Lord Moridane would then attack and find Godric at the castle. Harry would double back to the castle and they'd have Moridane.

Lord Moridane did not react as anticipated. When Harry arrived at Diagon Alley, he found the Dark lord waiting for him. Apparently, Lord Moridane had decided to take advantage of the opportunity in an alternate way.

"James of London," said Lord Moridane by way of greeting, "the Apprentice of Gryffindor."

"If you say so," Harry replied, staring at Moridane. He looked nothing like Voldemort. Harry supposed that Voldemort had been consumed far more by the Dark. On the other hand, Voldemort's looks might have been the result of natural ugliness. Moridane had a full head of salt and pepper colored hair. His skin was not deathly pale; it looked as if he had actually had far too much sun.

"I am the grandchild of Salazar Slytherin," announced Moridane very loudly. Harry began to wonder if Moridane was having a conversation with him or making a speech to the onlookers who had gathered from around Diagon Alley to see the disturbance. "Gryffindor was my grandfather's enemy, but he will soon be dead. You who seek to supplant I, the holder of the Hogwart's birthright, must die."

Harry was terribly confused. Moridane had hardly even targeted Hogwarts through the duration of his uprising. Godric's spies had worked tirelessly to even convince Moridane that attacking Hogwarts was strategically desirable. It then dawned on him that Moridane was trying to publicly justify his attempt to kill Harry.

Seeing that Moridane was probably not going to say anything useful, Harry drew his wand with a jerk of his wrist and shot a stunner at Moridane, cutting him off in the middle of his next sentence.

Moridane dodged with a complicated spin and shot a sickly looking wave of purple light toward Harry who blocked it. "Protego!" The purple light crashed into Harry's shield and though it did not penetrate, shook Harry's entire body nastily in a way similar to what one feels when striking an anvil with a hammer tightly gripped in their hand.

Harry gasped and when he looked up toward Moridane, he saw the green light of a killing curse coming his way. It was all he could do to drop to the ground in the mud that made up the main thoroughfare in Diagon Alley.

Knowing that he didn't have time to get up if he wanted to fire anything toward Moridane, Harry pointed his wand down the street in the general direction of the Dark lord and shot a strong banishing charm tipped with a shield charm. It did the trick and Moridane hurtled down the street where he landed with a thud.

Before Harry could blink or even prepare to shoot off the next hex, Moridane had jumped to his feet so quickly that Harry supposed some sort of charm or wandlesss magic was involved. The Dark lord began shooting assorted curses toward Harry rapidly. Harry erected an especially strong shield that blocked most of them, but one of the hexes was designed to break through that particularly shield and the cutting hex that followed bloodied Harry up a little bit.

Gritting his teeth, Harry hissed, "Accio Moridane!" Without waiting a millisecond he then pointed his wand to several rocks lodged in the mud and banished them toward the incoming Dark lord. The resulting collision was sickening for both those hearing and watching the duel.

Harry was running away from the point of the collision in order to gain distance between himself and the Dark lord. When he turned around the Dark lord, covered in blood and one of his arms hanging strangely, was already preparing to shoot off another volley of curses sure to get Harry again. Harry erected his strongest shield yet and then summoned lightning.

Moridane's first several curses were nullified by Harry's shield and he was unable to cast anymore because lightning was rapidly striking the ground near him, sometimes close, other time near.

Harry regretted that lightning was too finicky to make it possible for him to aim and hit the Dark lord with it. At the very least, it kept Moridane busy. Harry was able to catch his breath and gauge his surroundings better. There was now a large crowd watching the duel.

Soon, Moridane found a way to propel miniature lightning storm toward Harry and even intensify hit. Harry knew more about the properties of electricity and promptly transfigured a bird perched on the shop next to him into a metal lightning rod that was so well grounded that with only a few hits to it, the storm was cancelled out.

Harry and Moridane found themselves staring at each other, not casting any curses. Harry could see hatred in Moridane's eyes. It was ironic; Moridane had never come face to face with Harry until this point, but he hated him.

Moridane erected an extremely strong but unknown shield charm and then held up his wand and began an incantation in Parseltongue as being a descendant of Slytherin, he was a Parselmouth. Harry too was a Parselmouth and his face blanched upon hearing the details of the longwinded incantation.

Harry attempted several stunners, but they did not penetrate the shield. Moridane continued the incantation and Harry wondered if he was insane. Didn't he realize that the incantation could hurt him as much as it could hurt everyone else?

It was necessary to find a way past the shield. Most shields only blocked against magic and Harry gambled on that. With a wave of his wand, one of the rocks that Moridane had crashed into was transfigured into a blood red snake that vaguely resembled a cobra in shape and size. Harry wasn't exactly an expert on snake breeds.

Harry hissed at the snake in Parseltongue. "Strangle the Dark lord."

The scarlet colored snake struck as fast as lighting and was soon around Moridane's neck. The incantation was cut off and Moridane was further unable to say anything to the snake to countermand Harry's directive.

Moridane dropped to his knees, desperately pulling on the snake, trying to get it to release him, but to no avail. Harry sadly watched as the last signs of life slowly disappeared from Moridane. Harry did not relish the moment but he did not think he could be justified in letting someone so bent on widespread destruction live. In becoming a Dark lord, Moridane had made his choice. Harry had only accelerated what had become inevitable from that moment.

Once Moridane was completely dead, Harry waved his wand and caused the snake to vanish. He barely heard the cheers of the gathered onlookers as he stared at the corpse. He had killed a Dark lord. Killing Voldemort no longer seemed quite as impossible. Harry wondered if it would be like this when he finally did.

It was Godric Gryffindor that drew Harry from his distracted state. "You did well, James. I'm proud of you."

Harry looked over at Godric with small smile. "I guess our plan kind of fell through."

"It turned out better than we planned," Godric said to Harry. "It took me a while to figure out that something had gone wrong. By the time I arrived here you already had things under control."

Gryffindor raised his arms toward the crowd who quieted. "This day," he orated, "the Dark was again defeated by James of London!"

A very old woman stepped forward out of the crowd toward Harry and Godric. Her white hair was a mess and her age had bent her spine until she was quite nearly a hunchback. Her eyes were white and glazed over. She was blind. "Nay, not James of London," she declared in a cackling voice. "James, the Bane of the Dark."

Godric smiled at the woman. "Very well," he acquiesced loudly. "Today, James surnamed Darkbane triumphed against Lord Moridane."

There were a great many cheers at this. "Dark-bane!" they chanted over and over.

"Can we get out of here?" Harry muttered to Godric, eyeing the crowd nervously. "This is kind of awkward."

"I think not," Godric retorted. "The best part about defeating a Dark lord is the celebrations that follow. People will stop paying attention to you soon enough."

"Very well," Harry said, giving in. "But could we get them to cut the Darkbane nonsense?"

"Why?" Godric asked. "You've been in need of a surname since you got here. Now your students can call you 'Professor Darkbane' instead of those other substitutions."

"I refuse to be called 'Professor Darkbane,'" Harry growled.

Godric was paying no attention and had walked over to the Dark lord's body that no one had touched. Harry followed and watched as Godric quickly went through Moridane's possessions. "I'm looking for Slytherin's ring," Godric explained. "If you remember, that's the reason we jumped into this conflict in the first place."

Slytherin's ring was never found. Apparently, Moridane had been wise and provided for its safekeeping. Harry was annoyed, but Godric was terribly disappointed. He had been counting on the ring's acquisition so that he could go to the grave in peace knowing that Harry would be able to look after Hogwarts.

Godric did not let the disappointment mar the celebration of Moridane's death. He and Harry celebrated with everyone else and had enjoyed themselves immensely. They soon returned to the castle where another party was held for the students who had heard of the victory. Harry was even more popular than ever and had earned even the grudging respect of the fellow teachers.

The Christmas holiday soon arrived and with it came the Ollivander family to personally pick their son. They requested a meeting with Harry who graciously invited them into his office. Mary Ollivander, who had graduated the previous summer, was there and beaming at Harry as had become her habit. It was her father who spoke to Harry though. "We wanted to thank you again for rescuing our son as well as congratulate you for defeating Moridane."

"I was only happy to help," Harry replied, a faint tinge of red appearing on the tips of his ears.

"You're a modest person," Mr. Ollivander commented with a smile. "We have a gift for you. We would have presented it to you earlier, but it was not ready until just now." He handed Harry a long, thin, and elegantly carved wooden case.

Harry curiously opened it and found a wand. The first thing Harry noticed about it was that it was quite long compared to every other wand he had ever seen. He estimated that it was nearly fifteen inches long. Instead of bare wood, it was glazed with an extremely dark paint. It wasn't quite black, but Harry was unable to figure out what other color it was. As he tipped the box back and forth he got the impression that it was blue, or scarlet, or green, maybe purple, or if the light hit it just right, simply too shiny to look at.

"Try holding it!" Mary directed eagerly.

Harry took the wand into his hand, held it, and was reminded distinctly of the day when he first held a wand in Mr. Ollivander's shop back in the future. Both warmth and a chill shot through his body and Harry suddenly felt as if he could do anything.

"It will take you a certain amount of time to become accustomed to this wand," explained Mr. Ollivander. "This isn't an average wand. We custom made it for you using outdated skills that have largely been forgotten. Before certain technical advances in wand making, wandmakers had to use magical ingredients that were more raw, or pure. In most cases, the difference between an old fashioned wand and a modern wand is irrelevant. However, we thought you might benefit from the old fashioned more."

"I see," Harry said carefully, not quite following everything Mr. Ollivander said.

"Furthermore," Mr. Ollivander said, "we tried to imitate your personality in the core as best we could. The core is a phoenix feather, soaked in a highly volatile solution of phoenix tears and basilisk venom. The majority of your wand is holly, but we had to use ash to contain the basilisk venom."

The information about the basilisk venom surprised Harry and worried him a bit. Why were they comparing basilisk venom to his personality? They didn't seem to be holding it against him, so Harry just smiled and thanked the Ollivander family profusely for their gift. They soon left Harry to himself and his new wand.

Harry tried a few spells out using the new wand and was pleased with the results. The wand definitely suited him better than the wand he'd been permanently loaned. It shot out spells with more power and precision. The extended length of the wand made things a little awkward with regard to moving it, but Harry supposed he'd get used to it.

The length also interfered with his sleeve holster. It was too long to fit in it. After some consideration, Harry came to the conclusion that he was going to have to buy a more expensive holster with one of those charms that made the inside bigger than the outside.

He soon found himself in Diagon Alley among all the holiday shoppers. As he had done for previous holidays since arriving in the past, he vaguely wondered how his friends handled Christmas without him. "Merry Christmas wherever you all are and whatever you're doing," he said to his friends, even though they were centuries away and couldn't hear him. "I'd buy you all gifts if I could."

It took him a few minutes to realize that he could buy them all gifts even if they didn't receive them for nearly a thousand years. Shopping for his friends cheered him up considerably and inaugurated the start of a personal holiday tradition that would last for nearly a century.

~!~!~!~!~!

Ron, Hermione, and Ginny were reluctant to admit it, but Professor Snape had thus far done a respectable job of teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts. His manner was rather abrupt and he was definitely an unpleasant person, but he did teach what they needed to learn and saw to it that they learned it.

The homework from that class combined with homework from their other classes kept them incredibly busy. A couple of weeks went by and it was announced on all the school bulletin boards that a Dueling Club would be started. This caused a great deal of excitement among the student body as a whole and among some members of the former Dumbledore's Army organization.

Discussion ensued on the subject at dinner the night of the first meeting. Ron was quick to take credit when anyone mentioned it to him. He liked telling people that they had discussed everything with Dumbledore and arranged for this.

Hermione and Ginny were more reserved and limited themselves to saying that they were looking forward to it and hoped to learn a lot. Between the three of them, their comments ended up causing several people to decide to attend and there was a sizeable crowd waiting in the Great Hall for the start of the club meeting well before the appointed time.

Ron let out a groan when Snape strode into the Great Hall. "We're not here for an extra Defense class," he muttered.

"Maybe he'll teach us stuff that we wouldn't normally cover in class," Hermione said optimistically.

"At least he can't grade us," Ginny said realistically.

Their fears were soon put to rest when Professors Dumbledore and Flitwick followed Professor Snape in to the Great Hall. Seeing that everyone who intended to come was already there, Dumbledore promptly called the meeting to order.

"As you all know, Lord Voldemort and the Death Eaters have been causing problems across the country. What you learn here may help you to get out of some bad situations. Let me stress that you shouldn't assume that you have the skills to stand up to a Death Eater or even try to chase and apprehend one. Leave that to the Aurors. You should be using what you learn here to defend yourself and if possible, escape."

He then laid down some basic rules for the club, especially mentioning that students should only cast spells that they were instructed to do. Failure to obey these rules would result in expulsion from the club and detention. "The club will meet weekly at the same time and place," Dumbledore continued. "I, Professor Snape, or Professor Flitwick will be here to instruct you."

The meeting proper then began and Dumbledore ended up teaching the disarming spell, Expelliarmus. Ron and Hermione were severely annoyed with this turn of events as they were already very familiar with this spell and took it upon themselves to go about instructing other students who were having trouble.

Ginny found herself left behind and practicing with a first year girl who was scared stiff of Ginny because she had heard the rumor that Ginny had gone to the Ministry the previous summer and faced off with Death Eaters. Ginny put an honest effort into practicing the spell and ended up enjoying her brief time with the young first year.

As the weeks went by and at repeated Dueling Club meetings, Ginny began to notice that Ron and Hermione ended up always wandering off or exclusively pairing with each other. She began to realize that Ron and Hermione didn't think much of her talents or age.

This made her quite angry and drove her to excel. She found herself looking up extra spells and practicing them when she was in the library searching books for Lord Darkbane. As she did so, her ability started to increase with regard to Defense. Snape even privately noted to himself that the Weasley girl was nearly as talented at Defense as the Potter brat.

When alone and annoyed at Ron and Hermione who were increasingly becoming distant, Ginny also found herself angrily telling herself that Harry would never act like Ron and Hermione were. This led to Ginny having a little bit of a chip on her shoulder.

She was sparing for a fight when she found Hermione researching Lord Darkbane in the library one evening. "I can help you," she declared in an angry whisper. "Why don't you stop hogging it all for yourself?"

Hermione looked up from her book at Ginny with a surprised look on her face. "Hogging it all?" she queried.

"I'm in this too!" Ginny declared in a somewhat raised voice. "If we work together, we have a better chance of finding information about Lord Darkbane."

Hermione glanced around the library and hissed at Ginny. "Keep it down! We don't need everyone hearing about what we're doing."

It was too late though. Draco Malfoy had overheard the conversation from behind a bookshelf near the table that Hermione was sitting at.

Ginny had the decency to look embarrassed, but was still angry. "Let me help. Tell me what you want me to do."

"I can go through the right books faster," Hermione hedged. "Really, you don't have to worry about it. I've spent a lot of time here and I know which books are most likely to mention him."

"So tell me which books to check," Ginny demanded. "I'll go through them and get back to you."

Hermione finally gave in and Ginny left the library with a large stack of books to look through.

It was not long before Lord Voldemort learned that Ginny Weasley and Hermione Granger were doing research on Lord Darkbane and that said research had nothing to do with their school work. In most cases, Voldemort would have likely dismissed the information as being irrelevant and unconnected to his plans. However, Lord Voldemort knew of Lord Darkbane.

The Order held another meeting not long after this where Voldemort's reaction to this information was to be reported on by Professor Snape. Professor Dumbledore would not have normally gone to great lengths to ensure that Ron, Hermione, and Ginny attended Order meetings during the school term, but as they were involved with the Lord Darkbane subject he made the necessary arrangements.

The meeting convened near sunset on a Saturday night at the house of Mad-Eye Moody. As it was still under protective wards, Dumbledore thought it the best option. Professor Dumbledore and the three teens were the last to arrive.

Dumbledore took his place at the front while the teens quickly slipped to the back. Professor Dumbledore called the meeting to order and each Order member quickly reported that their research had produced no information on the whereabouts of Harry Potter in the past.

Each member reporting was instructed to keep researching or perhaps think of different places to look for records of Harry. Some were specifically assigned to check places that Dumbledore had thought of since the last meeting. Dumbledore deliberately waited to have Ron, Hermione, and Ginny report last.

Their turn soon came and all three stood, but Hermione spoke. "We have discovered through certain sources that there is a former Headmaster of Hogwarts by the name of Lord Darkbane. According to our sources, Darkbane was well versed in the magic behind time travel. We have been trying to find more information on him to see if he ever came in contact with Harry. We are still in the process of looking." The teens then sat down.

"That leads us to our next topic," Dumbledore informed the Order. "Lord Voldemort has learned that we are researching Lord Darkbane. Professor Snape will report on that."

Snape stood up and sneered at the three teens, but especially Ginny. "Draco Malfoy overheard Weasley and Granger speaking in the library and passed the information on to the Dark lord."

Ginny knew very well that it was completely her fault and was blushing. She could have tried to place the blame elsewhere, but she realized that it was strictly her fault that they had been overheard. It was a rather humbling experience as the sound of annoyed muttering filled the room. She tried not to look in her mother's direction.

Dumbledore cleared his throat loudly and by so doing, urged Snape to move on to the actual information. Snape obliged. "The Dark Lord is familiar with Lord Darkbane and from his own sources has learned more than Granger and the Weasley siblings have discovered."

"What kind of sources are we talking about?" one witch called out, voicing the question that Hermione was too shy to ask herself. Ron, Hermione, and Ginny were practically on the edge of their chairs waiting to hear this new information.

Snape was annoyed at being interrupted, but was spared answering the question by Professor Dumbledore who jumped in. "Voldemort has access to materials that have been safeguarded by Dark lords and wizards. There is also of course the oral tradition that members of the Dark community have."

"Is that sort of information accurate?" Arthur Weasley asked.

"I wouldn't accept everything Lord Voldemort's sources indicate as pure fact," Professor Dumbledore admitted. "The Dark has a way of twisting things to its point of view as you well know. The Dark is often ignorant as well. It's explanations for events are often incorrect because of a lack of all the relevant facts. Thus, I would say that Voldemort's information at the very least has basis in fact.

Everyone seemed to accept this and Snape was finally able to move on. "The Dark lord believes that Lord Darkbane was an extremely powerful wizard. Though he didn't admit it outright, I believe that he admires Lord Darkbane. I would go so far as to say that the Dark lord believes that Lord Darkbane was also a Dark lord."

Ron, Hermione, and Ginny were surprised at this. Their eyes widened and they shared worried glances.

Snape's report continued. "Tradition holds that Lord Darkbane possessed some very powerful magical objects that he often used against his enemies. Lord Darkbane's wand is the first of these. The wand was valuable enough that some Dark wizards attempted to kill Lord Darkbane for the sole purpose of becoming the wand's master. None of them succeeded."

"Is it known where the wand came from?" Kingsley Shacklebolt asked.

"No," Snape said. "The next three magical objects are grouped together. It is said that Darkbane possessed three powerful magical rings. I believe that this information was especially important to the Dark lord, but he did not share any background on them with the Death Eaters."

Mundungus Fletcher interrupted with a jibe. "If he didn't say hardly anything about the rings, how do you know that they are important to him?"

Snape glared. "We will get to that later. The third object is perhaps the important, though the least is known about it. Dark tradition holds that Lord Darkbane possessed an hourglass that he often kept on his person. The obvious speculation would be that it was a Time Turner, but Voldemort doesn't believe that was the case. The hourglass was said to have been an incredibly powerful magical object that rendered Lord Darkbane invincible."

This caused some quiet whispers between the members of the Order. It was Tonks who bravely spoke up. "Isn't that a little over the top?"

"It's hard to say," Snape replied, annoyance thick in his voice. "Supposedly, Darkbane was never defeated during combat or in duels. The Dark lord also believes that the hourglass made Lord Darkbane immortal in some way."

That caused some discussion among the members of the Order. Snape and Dumbledore were soon fending off objections to the idea on the basis that it was ridiculous and that it was based on facts gleaned from the Dark lord.

"If he was immortal, why isn't he still alive?" Ron quietly said, poking a hole in the rumor.

Hermione frowned and replied back. "Lord Darkbane was Headmaster for nearly a hundred years. That's a really long time for an era when most people were lucky to see their fiftieth birthday."

"I bet that the hourglass has nothing to do with anything," Ginny said, sharing her opinion. "Those Dark wizards probably got walloped by him and they tried to come up with a cheap explanation to spare their pride. Dumbledore is really old and has never been defeated by a Dark wizard. That doesn't mean that I think his watch has anything to do with it."

Snape was soon able to resume and tell the members of the Order why this was all relevant to the cause. "The Dark lord believes that we are researching Lord Darkbane in an effort to get our hands on these magical objects in order to fight him. As a consequence of this, the Dark lord wishes to obtain these magical objects before we can. He believes that because we are researching it with Professor Dumbledore's approval that it is possible."

He then turned to Mundungus Fletcher. "As for the rings, Voldemort obviously believes they're important because he gave us the most description about them and instructions on where he'd like us to look."

This proved to be the end of Snape's report and Professor Dumbledore stood up to speak. "It is my opinion that Lord Darkbane did possess a wand." He cracked a smile as everyone laughed. He then continued. "It is entirely possible that the wand may have been especially powerful. The rings may have existed. If they did, there were probably just average rings with a charm or two on them. As for the hourglass, I think we would have heard of it from other sources if it was of any special significance. We already know that Lord Darkbane was talented with regard to time travel. I would venture to say the hourglass was a Time Turner."

The members of the Order were quick to agree with Dumbledore. Even Ron, Hermione, and Ginny agreed.

Dumbledore then announced how the Order would handle things with regard to the Lords Darkbane and Voldemort. "It is unlikely that Voldemort will be able to find anything more about Lord Darkbane. It is doubtful that he will get his hands on any of those magical artifacts as well. As he searches, his time will be consumed and we will have more time to search for Harry. I think that our youngest members should continue to research Lord Darkbane primarily for the sake of finding out whether or not he and Harry crossed paths. If there is any information discovered about these magical objects I'm sure they'll pass that on too."

Ron was especially pleased at being trusted with something seemingly so important. Hermione's eagerness to research had doubled, though she was now more interested in establishing specific facts about Lord Darkbane as he seemed even more fascinating to her.

Dumbledore wasn't quite finished with the instructions though. He looked at the three teens over the rims of his spectacles. "Said Order members should take care that their findings do not fall into the hands of Voldemort or his minions. We don't need to make things easier for him."

Ginny blushed again and vowed to herself that no Death Eater would learn anything from her.


	6. Lord Darkbane

_**Chapter Six: Lord Darkbane**_

A number of years had passed since Harry had defeated Lord Moridane. Harry had since become extremely well known and was often called on for help from other wizards and witches. In the past, Godric Gryffindor had usually been the one called upon to help fight Dark wizards or to provide counsel to magical communities who wanted to protect themselves. The ailing Founder had begun to defer these requests to Harry. Soon these requests began coming directly to him.

Harry, known to the magical community as James Darkbane, was soon regarded as being a power to be reckoned with. He did his best to help out when needed, but often was frustrated as this consumed his time and kept him too busy to make significant progress in finding a way back to the future. On the other hand, he couldn't deny that what he asked to do needed to be done.

Harry's only consolation was that though nearly twenty years had passed since he had arrived in the past, he had yet to age a day. He still appeared to be only sixteen years of age, though he had long since taken to wearing clothes that made him look older and more dignified. Sometimes he used glamour charms to age himself so that he would be able fit in more comfortably with his older peers.

His duties at Hogwarts also kept him busy. He was still an extremely popular professor among his students. He still only taught the first years and second years but had gladly switched to teaching Charms and Defense rather than Potions and Transfiguration. As Godric got older, Harry also found himself occasionally teaching the older Defense classes as well.

He also found himself privately tutoring the occasional student on the subject of Defense. He was always glad to do this because he reckoned that they would leave Hogwarts when they got old enough and lessen the demand for his help from magical communities. Many of these students went on to be great and powerful wizards. This proved to work out and Harry soon found himself with enough time to make progress on his time travel studies.

Travelling to the past proved easy to learn, once Harry had found the appropriate spells in the ancient texts he had acquired. Unfortunately, there didn't appear to be any established way for travelling to the future. Harry had concluded that he would have to learn the theory behind the time travel spells he had thus learned and see if he couldn't manipulate a new spell to get him to the future.

More time passed and Godric became quite frail. Godric had insisted on Harry continuing to wear Hufflepuff's yellow jeweled ring, even after Moridane's death. This, combined with Godric's trust of him put Harry in a position of leadership, power, and trust where he soon became the one who managed the day to day business affairs of Hogwarts so as to spare Godric the exertion.

This was a positive thing for the school. Harry wasn't necessarily the shrewdest administrator, but he did have a foreknowledge of what would come to pass in the future. He was thus able to make many arrangements, implement several policies, and make important decisions that benefitted Hogwarts in the long run.

One action that Harry proactively took proved to be extremely beneficial for the school. In the past, ownership and dominion was established by those who conquered. Harry knew that in the future, things would change and the government would only recognize ownership by those who could produce documentation. He also knew that it would be important for Hogwarts to have a clear status with regard to how much power the magical government had over it.

Knowing this, Harry approached the fledgling Ministry of Magic and Wizengamot. By invoking Gryffindor's and his own influence, calling in favors, and also by using a bit of coercion, Harry was able to officially establish that Hogwarts and its property was independent from the Ministry and gained a certain sort of protected status for Gryffindor and himself.

Harry did not stop there. Though Hogwarts was in Scotland, Harry approached both the King of the Scots and the King of the English in secret. Harry performed a few favors for them and in return, they signed some very bizarre treaties with him. The King of the Scots granted Gryffindor a title of nobility and ownership of all the land Hogwarts was on and near. The King of the English guaranteed the same should the English ever gain greater prominence over the Scots in any way.

Godric Gryffindor thus became a lord. The ailing Founder was quite proud of this and it seemed to energize him to a small degree. Harry had primarily accomplished that for the sake of Hogwarts, but he was extremely pleased to see that it brought a smile to the Founder's face.

Lord Gryffindor did not live to enjoy his title of nobility for very long. During an especially harsh winter, he finally succumbed to old age. The term was not supposed to end for another week, but Harry sent the students home for the holidays while he mourned. He felt as if he had lost a father.

On the January day on which the holidays ended, Harry found himself in his office contemplating his future. He had levitated one of the chairs from in front of the fireplace to a position in front of the opposite wall which was almost all windows.

Evening was approaching, and it was snowing. Harry supposed he would have to look after Hogwarts for a time. It wasn't that hard. He didn't suppose that he'd have to do much more than he already was doing. There was nothing else to do. He wasn't able to travel to the future yet.

He looked down at one his hands. On it was three rings. Gryffindor had known that his time had come. He had handed over his own Founder ring and Ravenclaw's to Harry, pleading with him to keep them and Hogwarts safe. He also told Harry to keep looking for Slytherin's ring and reminded Harry that it was all right if he travelled to the future as long as he kept the rings safe.

Harry had accepted and given the old man his final peace. Now, it was weighing down on him. What would it be like to return to the future with the rings? What would he have to do? Dumbledore probably already had everything under control.

That caused him to wonder. Was he now the Headmaster of Hogwarts? Gryffindor had never called himself Headmaster. He was just one of the people who had founded the school and was naturally in charge of things.

A small cough abruptly startled Harry. "If you please, milord," a house-elf addressed Harry, "everyone is awaiting you in the Great Hall."

Harry turned his head and stared at the small house elf. "Pardon me?"

"The teachers and students are gathered in the Great Hall for a feast that we house elves have prepared. They're waiting for your arrival to start," squeaked the small creature.

"Thank you for informing me," Harry said absently. "You can go back to what you were doing or have a rest. Do whatever you've a mind to." The house-elf would probably go and find some work to do. Harry reckoned it didn't matter as long as the house elf was happy.

The house elf beamed at him and then disappeared.

Harry supposed he would have to go down to the Great Hall. He didn't understand why they were having a feast. Everyone was usually too tired to do very much by the time they returned to Hogwarts after the holidays. Harry wasn't against food, though.

He soon found himself outside the main doors to the Great Hall. They automatically opened to admit him, one of the consequences of his wearing the Founder rings. As soon as he walked in and was noticed, the students stood and began to cheer and chant. "Dark-bane Dark-bane!"

Harry was shocked. _What was this all about?_ He quickly made his way to the table for professors and found his fellow teachers who were also standing, but clapping instead of cheering. There was only one chair open. It was the center one where Godric had formerly sat. It wasn't the same chair though. It was high-backed and painted black. Having no choice, he took a seat.

This seemed to be a signal and the students stopped cheering and sat down. One of the other teachers remained standing and started giving a long speech about how Harry would be a fine Headmaster and that the students were extremely lucky. By the expression on the faces of the students, it seemed apparent that they agreed.

Harry decided that he needed to find a way back to the future soon. At least his friends wouldn't act like he was some sort of spectacular wizard when he didn't feel like he was one. The speech soon ended, and the Great Hall was again filled with a great deal of cheering and applause from everyone. Thus commenced Lord Darkbane's reign over Hogwarts.

~!~!~!~!

Hermione, Ginny, and Ron had doubled their efforts in the Lord Darkbane research effort. In return, they had soon been able to conclude that the Hogwarts library simply did not hold any information regarding Lord Darkbane. Hermione and Ron had developed a great deal of interest in the subject based on the information that Snape had shared at the Order meeting.

Ginny had doubled her efforts because she had begun to believe that the Lord Darkbane possibility might be a dead end with regard to searching for Harry. She was hoping to quickly establish once and for all whether there was a connection so that they could move on to better possibilities.

The anger and annoyance that Ginny had felt for Ron and Hermione was still there, but Ginny had opted to shove it aside and ignore it. They were all working for the same thing and Ginny supposed that it would be easier for everyone involved if she would just let a few things slide.

At Hermione's urging, they were on their way to Professor Dumbledore's office to report their progress and tell him what they thought needed to be done and to get permission to do it. "Let me do the talking," Hermione told the two Weasley siblings.

Ron and Ginny rolled their eyes and shared a rare look of mutual amusement for their common friend and made comments to the effect of that they would let her do the talking as usual.

They were soon discussing the situation with Professor Dumbledore and as planned. Hermione was speaking. "The library here is primarily focused on magic and magical theory," Hermione explained. "There isn't very much history and a complete lack of primary sources."

"I see," Dumbledore said slowly, looking at each of them over his spectacles. "Are you saying the search is over then?"

"Not at all," Hermione responded. "The Ministry archives have a great deal of material that may contain information on Lord Darkbane. As I understand it, many of the pureblood families feel that it gives them status to have their personal papers donated to the Archives. If Lord Darkbane was the Headmaster of the chief magical school in Britain for nearly a hundred years, surely there are people who knew him personally and far more that knew of him."

Dumbledore nodded his head in agreement. "You are of course completely correct, Miss Granger. In addition to that, the record kept by the house elves indicated that Lord Darkbane was often at odds with the Ministry. This would surely be recorded in the Ministry archives as well."

Convincing Professor Dumbledore that it was necessary to search the Ministry Archives was no problem. The difficulty arose when it came to determining whether Ron, Hermione, and Ginny should go themselves. Dumbledore wasn't eager to see them miss any classes. Luckily for them, the Ministry archives were open on Saturdays for a number of hours. Professor Dumbledore agreed to let them go for a visit on the next Saturday provided that they were caught up in all of their classes.

In the days leading up to their first visit to the Ministry Archives, Hermione visited the kitchens a number of times to refer to Hogwarts THE History for dates and possible names of Lord Darkbane's contemporaries. A closer study of what the history had to say about Lord Darkbane did not shed much light on him other than revealing that he had been an outstanding and proactive headmaster. Hermione was quite impressed with the foresight Lord Darkbane had displayed in making some of his decisions.

The day to visit the archives soon came and they met Mr. Weasley in Professor Dumbledore's office. Mr. Weasley had been chosen to escort them to and from the Ministry Archives.

"Thank you for coming today, Arthur," Professor Dumbledore said warmly. "I realize that you must have things to do, so perhaps you can drop them off at the Archives and arrange to meet them at a specific time for their return."

"That sounds fair enough," Arthur said cheerfully. He turned to the three teenagers. "What time shall I come along to pick you up?

Hermione quickly specified that closing time would be perfect.

They soon found themselves at the Ministry of Magic where Arthur promised to meet them by the fountain when it was time for them to leave. As it was a Saturday, hardly anything was going on. The lift took them down to the entire floor that composed the Ministry Archives. They found the archives nearly abandoned except for a middle-aged man who served as an archivist. They soon got his attention, and he vaguely instructed them on how to find what they were looking for, taking no interest whatsoever in their subject.

Because Hermione was familiar enough with libraries, his lack of attention didn't hinder the three teens in the least. It took her only a few moments to discover that they had to look through a special card catalog that had an entry for each person mentioned in any document, book, or record.

She was soon thumbing through the aforementioned catalog with Ginny looking over her shoulder. Ron had wandered off and was looking at a special display that had been set up nearby showing various types of armor.

"Darkbane, James," Hermione said, reading aloud from one of the cards. "Do you think that this is the right one? I don't remember the Hogwarts history detailing that his name was James."

"It's the only Darkbane in there," Ginny pointed out. "I doubt that it's a very common name."

Hermione quickly agreed with Ginny, and they removed the card from the catalog. There didn't appear to be anything on the card, but as soon as Hermione tapped it with her wand, a list composed of several hundred entries began scrolling down the page. Further taps of the wand either froze the list or accelerated the speed at which it scrolled.

Ginny was excited, but Hermione more so. "Ron!" she exclaimed. "Get over here, we've found a ton of references."

They were soon writing down all of the call numbers for each entry on Lord Darkbane and splitting them into three sets. They presented these lists to the archivist who didn't seem especially thrilled at having to retrieve so many things. He soon set them up with a few of their requests to keep them occupied while he pulled out the rest from the vault.

Some of the documents were very exciting, others proved to be a waste of time. For instance, after searching through the diary of one wizard who had spent the summer working for an apothecary, Ginny was disgusted to find a single entry concerning Lord Darkbane. "The Hogwarts potions master ordered supplies to replenish his stocks. The order was authorized by Lord Darkbane, so I charged it to the Hogwarts account." The diary nearly found itself thrown across the room as a result of Ginny's disgust.

Other entries proved to be rather amusing. One witch wrote in her memoirs, "My boyfriend was in a rival house at Hogwarts. Thus, it became necessary for us to meet secretly lest our relationship be discovered. The Astronomy Tower was the ideal location. Unfortunately, we soon discovered that in response to reports of excessive love making on the Astronomy Tower that particular week, Lord Darkbane had assigned Peeves to stand watch at night and equipped said poltergeist with a self-filling bucket of ice cold water."

Ron was laughing out loud at hearing that. Hermione and Ginny disapproved greatly. "You wouldn't find that so funny if you were the one getting ice water dumped on you," Ginny informed Ron.

Hermione was particularly annoyed that a professor could be so cruel and irresponsible. She was in for a further shock from another document that Ron found. The document revealed that Peeves had taken up residence in the Hogwarts castle on direct invitation of Lord Darkbane.

Ron and Ginny agreed with Hermione that it seemed that Lord Darkbane was rather extreme. However, Ginny's private opinion was that there was hardly a better way to deal with misbehaving students than setting a worse behavior problem on them.

Before long, the time arrived for them to return to Hogwarts. Mr. Weasley was waiting for them at the fountain, and they were back in Professor Dumbledore's office shortly after that. Mr. Weasley bid them a good evening and left them alone with the aged headmaster.

"Did you discover anything?" he asked them.

Ginny had been the best at keeping track of everything useful they found, so she answered first. "We found bits and pieces here and there where wizards and witches mentioned small things about him. It appears that he was the sort of person that most people kept their distance from. We found more things detailing how people were affected by what he did, but not so much of them speaking to or seeing him directly."

Ron and Hermione agreed that was what the sum of their information was so far. Dumbledore told them that it was a good start. He reminded them that the important thing was to see if anyone mentioned the magical objects in which Voldemort was interested or if there was any record of Lord Darkbane crossing paths with a lone time traveler.

They committed to being more specific in their research the next Saturday and it wasn't long before they were back at the archives. They continued to find the same sort of things and were soon becoming rather frustrated. It was Tonks who picked them up from the archives the second Saturday, and she offered to take them to Diagon Alley for some ice cream on the way home. They were soon discussing how things were going with her.

"I'm beginning to get the impression that no one ever saw Lord Darkbane's face!" Ginny declared. "There's so much information on him, but he still seems completely anonymous to me."

Hermione piped up and expressed her personal regrets that they had not developed photography earlier. "I bet we could have learned a lot about Lord Darkbane by just looking at his picture."

"Have you looked for a portrait of him?" Tonks inquired.

"Magical portraits weren't especially popular until later," Hermione said. "Lord Darkbane lived during the time of the Founders and there aren't contemporary portraits of them either. From what we've found, I would venture to say that it would be pretty difficult for a painter to get near Lord Darkbane anyway."

They were all silent for a moment, but Tonks spoke up again. "I've just remembered that one of my friends from Hogwarts is an historian attached to the office of the Minister of Magic. If Lord Darkbane was the Headmaster of Hogwarts, surely he crossed paths with the Minister of the time."

"I don't see how he could avoid it," Hermione agreed.

"I'll talk to her and see if she has access to anything that is more useful than what you've been finding." Tonks promised. "It can't hurt."

Ron, Hermione, and Ginny were not especially hopeful that anything would come of that inquiry as they had previously met with a lot of drudgery, but they were agreeable to letting Tonks inquire so long as she was discreet about it.

On the Wednesday following, they were summoned to Professor Dumbledore's office shortly before dinner. Tonks was there and looked quite excited. Dumbledore was looking more lively than usual, too. "I've hit pay dirt!" Tonks announced to them. "My friend looked up Lord Darkbane and you'll never guess what she found."

None of the three teens could guess and Hermione impatiently urged Tonks to hurry up and tell them.

"A pensieve memory!" Tonks declared.

"Since when does the Ministry keep those around?" Hermione asked.

"They don't," Tonks explained. "This case was special. There was a hostile takeover of the Ministry from within. One of the Minister's undersecretaries decided that he wanted to be Minister, and he used one of his memories to prove to the Wizengamot that the man he wanted to replace was a fool. The memory is labeled 'Minister Smythe confronts Lord Darkbane.'"

Ron, Hermione, and Ginny were all excited. "Did your friend view the memory?"

"I don't think so," Tonks said. "I told her that you might want to come in and see the memory yourself and she said that would be all right."

They immediately turned to Professor Dumbledore to ask if this could be arranged. He smiled at them and assured him that everything was already taken care of. "Tonks has set up an appointment," he told them. "Generally this sort of thing isn't accessible to the public, but her friend is willing to bend the rules as long as you come at a time when no one else is around. You'll have to go directly to the Ministry after your last class on Friday."

Tonks soon had to leave. Ron, Hermione, and Ginny were quick to assure Professor Dumbledore that they hadn't fallen behind in classes. Dumbledore was pleased, but not surprised. He then gave them detailed instructions about viewing the memory.

"The words exchanged between Darkbane and Smythe are probably irrelevant," he told them. "The primary opportunity you will have is to see if there is any basis of fact behind the magical objects he was rumored to posses. When Darkbane appears in the memory, try to check his hands for the three rings and see if you can find the hourglass that he supposedly carried on his person. Then try to assess whether there is anything special about them."

The three of them left Professor Dumbledore's office in high spirits. The next two days of classes passed slowly for them and it seemed an eternity before Tonks picked them up and took them to the Ministry near closing time.

They were escorted into the Minister's offices without any serious problems, though they nearly ran into Percy Weasley, who always stayed late. The friend of Tonks seemed especially anxious that they not be discovered by him or anyone else.

Ron, Hermione, and Ginny were soon ready to peer into the pensieve bowl which already had the memory in question swirling about.

"I took a look right before you came," Amy, Tonks's friend, told them. "I sure wouldn't want to be on Lord Darkbane's bad side. Why were you researching him?"

Ron and Hermione looked at each other but Ginny spoke up casually. "It's just a stupid history project. Everyone else got the good subjects."

Amy seemed to accept this and displayed sympathy for them. "Just hop on in. Tonks and I will stay out here and wait for you. I'm afraid that it isn't a very long memory. I hope it's proves to be helpful for your project."

"Thanks," Hermione said for them right before they entered.

The memory started, and the three found themselves standing outside of Hogwarts as it had been nearly a thousand years previous. There were several men present and with them was a caged goblin. Two or three of the men seemed to be in charge of the cage while another two or three were dressed in fancy robes. From what was going on, all three teens assumed that the goblin had just barely been caged.

An older woman exited the castle and ran up to them. "What are you doing?" she demanded.

One of the men in fancy robes spoke. "This goblin is suspected of being part of a rebellion conspiracy," he said pompously. "As you know, I take a dim view of goblin rebellions."

"That must be Minister Smythe," Ron commented as the woman and man began arguing.

"You have no right to come here and arrest a goblin!" the woman declared.

The man snorted. "I'm the Minister of Magic; I'll do whatever I feel is necessary."

"We'll see about that!" the woman retorted. "I'm going to go tell Lord Darkbane!" She then turned and began making her way back to the castle.

Minister Smythe sighed and beckoned his two finely dressed cronies to follow him to the castle as well. "I doubt that Darkbane cares," he casually told them. "He hasn't left the castle in years. That woman is going to create trouble, though. We'll smooth things over before we leave."

Ron, Hermione, and Ginny followed everyone into the castle. The woman was standing in the entrance hall with two or three professors having an argument. "We can't let the Ministry get away with this!"

"It's the Ministry," one of the other male professors argued. "I'm sure they're just trying to do their job."

"Arresting goblins from the Hogbottom Forest is fine and well," another one said darkly, "but what if they start arresting wizards and witches from the castle?"

Minister Smythe soon stepped into the fray and made it worse. The argument escalated until some of the professors were even yelling at each other and the Ministry. Smythe and the Ministry officials did nothing to calm anyone and were expressing their opinions just as loudly.

Is one of these people supposed to be Lord Darkbane?" Ron asked Hermione and Ginny.

"I don't know," Hermione said. "Amy said she didn't want to be on Lord Darkbane's bad side. None of these people seem especially scary."

"I think he has yet to appear," Ginny commented.

They continued to observe the heated discussion as various students skirted the small group on their way to classes or other destinations. The argument went on for several minutes until the three teens began to fear that they might soon come to blows.

Abruptly, everyone in the group stopped speaking. They were all staring at something behind the teens. Ron, Hermione, and Ginny turned to face the direction that everyone in the group was looking. What they saw caused their mouths to drop open. It was Harry, and he was standing on the grand staircase.

Ginny was the first to realize that Harry and Lord Darkbane must be the same person. His green eyes that she had always adored were now extremely intense and radiated an aura of power. His robes were black with two large bands of white on each sleeve. Though they were normal, if not expensive robes, he wore them as if they were battle robes. All this told Ginny that Harry had changed drastically, but it was the three rings he wore on the fingers of one of his hands that told Ginny that he was probably Lord Darkbane. It didn't take close examination for Ginny to decide that they were clearly powerful magical objects and not just the cheaply charmed rings the Order had assumed them to be.

Ron and Hermione were equally surprised, but they didn't realize that Harry and Lord Darkbane were one and the same until Harry spoke, ending the silence that had began when the professors and Ministry officials noticed him standing on the staircase.

"Is there a problem?" Harry asked in a soft, intimidating voice that did little to hide his irritation. His green eyes bored holes into everyone's skulls while he waited for an answer.

Finally, the woman who had protested the Ministry's actions first spoke up. "They've arrested a goblin they found in Hogbottom Forest. They claim that the goblin was a part of a suspected rebellion."

Harry turned his attention specifically to Minister Smythe. The expression on Harry's face clearly demanded an explanation, and without Harry having to say anything, the Minister started answering. "We're talking about a goblin rebellion, milord. It's my duty to prevent that for the good of everyone."

"Do you have proof of the goblin's wrongdoing? Harry asked.

The Minister didn't seem to know what to say, but finally found something to say. "Well, he's a goblin."

"You have no right to come here and arrest a goblin, especially when you lack sufficient evidence to make a proper accusation. Furthermore, this is my dominion," Harry said. "I will decide when it is necessary to take action against anybody within my borders."

This made Minister Smythe angry. He began to lose his temper and yell at Harry. "I'm the Minister of Magic and you are subject to the Ministry! For decades you have flouted our laws and done as you wished. It ends here!"

Harry didn't bother to raise his voice. "I suggest you go home and do some research. You'll find that your alleged laws are either invalid or protect me from idiots like you. As for you arresting goblins in Hogbottom Forest, you will no longer be able to do that. From this moment on, Hogbottom Forest is Forbidden to you and the Ministry forever. The magical creatures residing therein have my personal permission to kill you or anyone who enters it with hostile intentions in their heart."

"You think you're so powerful!" Minister Smythe screamed, spittle flying from his mouth. "The Ministry will always be here, but you will not. When you die, I promise you that we'll assume control of everything you once controlled and do what we want!"

Harry's right hand that had been at his side twitched ever so slightly. Suddenly, a wand was in his hand and pointed at the Minister of Magic. He began walking toward the Minister, coming down the stairs slowly. The Minister of Magic started stuttering, but Harry kept walking, his green eyes blazing. The Minister's resolve broke, and he turned tail and ran from the castle as Harry continued to follow at a moderate pace.

Ron, Hermione, and Ginny's eyes had long since become as big as tea saucers as they watched the events. The memory ended and the three found themselves back in the office where Amy and Tonks were waiting for them. "Find anything interesting?" Tonks asked.

"Yes," Ginny answered. Because she had been the one to first realize Lord Darkbane's identity, she'd had more time to come to terms with it.

Ron's mouth was open and moving but no words were coming out.

Hermione's mind worked moderately well under shock, and she managed to speak. "We need to get back to Hogwarts. Professor Dumbledore is going to want to hear about what we just saw."


	7. Defiance

_**Chapter 7: Defiance**_

By the time Harry reached the doors to the castle, Minister Smythe and his cronies had vacated the grounds. Their flight had been so hasty that they had left the cage with the goblin on the grounds. Harry lowered his wand and turned his focus to the on-demand stream of knowledge that came from his Founder rings. This enabled him to ensure that the Ministry officials had indeed left the grounds and were not lingering.

He shook his head in disgust. Smythe had to be the worst Minister of Magic thus far, though Harry knew that there would be worse in the future. A smirk crossed his face as he contemplated Smythe's future. The political landscape at present was volatile and barbaric. Smythe's associates would be quick to see weakness and exploit it. Would Smythe be ousted? Or would he be a puppet for the rest of his tenure? Either way, it didn't matter to Harry.

The other professors, including the female one who had confronted the Ministry first, quickly dispersed with the exception of Professor Greengrass. As the decades had passed, Harry had slowly become more and more distracted by his studies of time travel and had left most of the day to day affairs of the school to his deputy headmaster.

Harry's rare appearances usually were accompanied by confrontations where Harry made it clear to students, professors, dark wizards, or incompetent Ministers of Magic that their behavior had been unacceptable. Consequently, few of the professors and even fewer of the students could say that they knew him, let alone were comfortable in his presence.

Professor Greengrass joined Harry just outside the doors. "Do you think the Ministry will really be able to take over Hogwarts when you're gone?"

Harry looked over at Professor Greengrass and carefully considered his answer before responding. "They'll try," he responded, "but they'll never completely control the school."

This seemed to relieve Greengrass greatly, but Harry knew it was for the wrong reasons. He had been a student in Slytherin while Harry had still actively looked after the management of Hogwarts, and Harry knew him better than Greengrass realized. Greengrass wanted to be the next Headmaster of Hogwarts. He wasn't really committed to Hogwarts's mission, but Harry knew that the man's sly nature could protect Hogwarts's interests. The prestige the man hoped to have would only last as long as Hogwarts did. Perhaps he would become converted to the school's mission as time wore on.

Harry didn't know for sure if Greengrass would succeed him as Headmaster. Greengrass seemed to think there was a good chance. Harry still appeared to only sixteen, but it was common knowledge that Lord Darkbane was at the very least over one hundred years old. Harry wasn't sure how old he was, he'd stopped counting. His age seemed to be irrelevant anyway.

Whether Greengrass became Headmaster depended on whether Harry figured out how to get back to the future before Greengrass died. Harry had made tremendous progress. He had discovered everything there was to know about time travel, except for the part about travelling to the future. He had moved on to researching the nature of reality in hopes that it combined with his knowledge of time travel would provide the answer.

"What are we going to do about the goblin?" Greengrass asked.

"I'll take care of it," Harry said slowly. "Why don't you go and check the grounds to make sure those idiots left?" Harry didn't want witnesses to what he was going to do next.

Greengrass quickly made his way to the gates and was soon out of sight. Harry walked over to the goblin cage and blasted open the mechanism holding it shut with a jab of his wand. The goblin exited the cage and stared at Harry. "Do you know who I am?" Harry asked.

"Darkbane," the goblin answered, glaring at Harry as was natural. Harry supposed it must be their natural complexion.

"Good. Who is your chief?" Harry realized that the goblin would be hesitant about revealing details about other goblins, but he needed to know for sure that he was talking to the right sort of goblin before he went any further.

The goblin took his time answering, but finally spoke up. "Gringott."

"Go tell Gringott that he can count me in," Harry instructed.

"What is that supposed to mean?" the goblin demanded.

"He'll know," Harry said coolly. "Now go."

The goblin left, unhappy at being commanded to do what he had already intended to do. Harry watched his retreating form head into the forest. He didn't know whether or not what he was about to do was such a good idea. From what Harry knew of the future, it probably wouldn't turn out badly. At the very least, it would help to ensure Hogwarts's safety from the Ministry.

~!~!~!~!

It was not long before Tonks dropped Ron, Hermione, and Ginny at Hogwarts and left them there. They were soon standing in front of Professor Dumbledore's desk and unable to speak because they were panting too hard and their minds were still racing with the new information that they had discovered. Putting it into words was tough.

"I take it that you had a measure of success," Dumbledore stated, his eyes twinkling.

"More than could have been expected," Hermione said.

Ginny smiled widely and spoke up, eager also to share the news. "We found Harry!"

Dumbledore was surprised at this comment. "Your instincts were right then, he and Lord Darkbane did cross paths."

Ron shook his head. He broke the news in a loud and dramatic voice. "No, Harry didn't go to the past and cross paths with Lord Darkbane. He went to the past and became Lord Darkbane!"

"What?" Dumbledore exclaimed, leaping forward in his chair and looking at the teens intently. "Are you sure?"

"Absolutely," Hermione said, indignant that anyone would question her accuracy. "In the memory Tonks's friend showed us, we saw the Minister of Magic try to arrest some poor goblin he'd found in the Forbidden Forest. The professors here at the school got into a big argument with the Ministry officials but it was interrupted when Harry showed up."

Ron cut in and seized Dumbledore's attention. "We didn't know that Harry was Lord Darkbane until he spoke. Then he and the Minister got into a big argument."

"Actually," Ginny corrected, "I knew Harry was Lord Darkbane the minute I saw him because he had those three rings that Snape mentioned."

Hermione ignored Ginny's comment, but spoke up to correct Ron's comment. "They didn't actually have an argument. Harry told the Minister that he couldn't arrest the goblin and this made the Minister really angry so he told Harry that when he died, the Ministry was going to take over Hogwarts."

"That's when Harry drew his wand and chased the Minister of Magic out of the castle!" Ron crowed.

Dumbledore was trying to grasp all of the details and had a great many questions. He decided that the rings Ginny mentioned would be easy to get out of the way first. He looked at Ginny. "You said you saw the three rings on his fingers?"

"Yes," Ginny replied. "All of them were made from gold and each had a different colored jewel. One was a sapphire, another was a ruby, and the other was kind of yellow. I'm not sure what jewel that was. They were definitely powerful magical objects."

"Did he use them at all during this confrontation?"

"Not that I saw," Ginny admitted, glancing at Ron and Hermione to see if they had noticed anything, but they hadn't.

"Extraordinary," Dumbledore said quietly, searching his memory for any information about magical rings now that it had been confirmed that the rings Snape spoke of existed. "Now tell me, what exactly was said in the argument?"

This proved slightly difficult, but between the three they managed to piece it together. Hermione started. "The Minister claimed that he was arresting the goblin because he suspected he was involved in a goblin rebellion."

"Harry asked if the Minister had any proof," Ginny continued.

"The idiot didn't have a shred of proof," Ron declared, "so Harry told him that he couldn't arrest the goblin. Then he also told the Minister that if anyone was doing wrong around Hogwarts, it was his job and not the Ministry's to take care of it."

Ginny was next. "The Minister didn't like this and it made him really angry. He accused Harry of breaking the Ministry's laws for decades."

Dumbledore jumped onto this tidbit of information quickly. "Decades? Are you sure he said decades?"

Ginny was reasonably sure, but Hermione confirmed it. "Yes, to be exact, he said that Harry had flouted the law for decades."

"That's not a big surprise, Ron said. "We knew from that book that he was Headmaster for ninety-seven years."

"That is true," Dumbledore mused. "It does give us a reference point though. Harry had already been Headmaster for several decades when you saw him in the memory. What did he look like?"

"What do you mean by that?" Ron retorted. "He looked like Harry."

Hermione was quicker on the ball. "Ron, if decades had passed, Harry should have looked like an old man."

"But he didn't," Ginny said.

"Harry didn't look old at all?" Dumbledore asked.

"No," Hermione answered. "He looked exactly like he did the last time we saw him."

Ginny modified this statement. "Actually, he had changed. He was still young, but I could see that that some subtle differences. His eyes were more intense and he looked like he could spit nails. Everyone in the memory, even the people who seemed to be a lot older than him, was obviously scared to death of him."

"Fascinating," Dumbledore muttered. "Either Harry became adept at glamour charms or he simply didn't age."

"That makes is more likely that Harry will come or already has come back to the future, right?" Ron said. "Or if he didn't age, maybe he just stayed around and has been keeping out of sight."

Dumbledore shrugged. "It could mean a lot of things."

Ron and Hermione were clearly thrilled and had a lot of ideas about how Harry could now help them and what advantages they would have. In their mind, Lord Voldemort didn't stand a chance against Lord Darkbane. Professor Dumbledore was more cautious but was also clearly pleased with the apparent possibilities. The idea that Harry became the Headmaster of Hogwarts was extraordinary to Dumbledore and he privately reveled in it.

Ginny was thrilled at the possibilities and the fact that Harry had made good, but something came to her memory and it wasn't good. She hated to bring it up and ruin the enthusiasm that they were now enjoying, but it was an important concern. She cleared her throat and got everyone's attention. "We have a slight problem with all of this," she informed them.

"What is it?" Hermione inquired.

Ginny pointed toward Professor Blood's sleeping portrait. "According to him, Harry committed suicide."

Apparently, the others had forgotten this minor detail because there was silence for several moments. Ron was the first to break the silence. "Maybe he was just joking."

"Be sensible, Ron," Ginny said. "What motive would he have for playing a sick joke on us?"

Hermione was able to come up with a more practical explanation. "If I remember correctly, Professor Blood and Lord Darkbane, or Harry, were separated by about two centuries. Professor Blood's information probably isn't firsthand. Furthermore, I don't think the man knows nearly as much as he would like us to think." From her tone of voice, it was clear that Hermione still harbored bad feelings for Professor Blood.

"Maybe we could ask him directly," Ginny suggested.

"That's a very good idea," Dumbledore said.

They then spent nearly a quarter of an hour trying to coax Professor Blood's portrait to awake and speak to them, but to no avail. None of the other portraits were able to do anything for them either. Eventually, they had no choice but to admit defeat.

"Hogwarts THE History didn't say anything about Harry's death did it?" Ron asked them all.

Professor Dumbledore had been the one to examine the account, therefore he answered. "It simply indicated the month during which his tenure ended. There was no mention of a death or suicide. At that time, I assumed that he died around the same time since it didn't mention anything about him after then."

Of those gathered, Ron seemed to possess the least skepticism about Harry's fate and the most confidence in his powers. "Harry probably figured out how to travel back to the future. Supposedly he was a master of time travel. When he was gone, he couldn't be Headmaster anymore."

Professor Dumbledore nodded in agreement. "We may as well continue our research of Lord Darkbane in order to find Harry's fate. I personally doubt that Harry died or committed suicide. Certain circumstances make that highly unlikely. If he found a way to travel to the present time, something may have gone wrong. The fact that he has not made himself known to us or left us word would suggest that his plans may not have been entirely successful. His return may be up to us."

"We can go through the rest of the records at the Ministry Archives," Hermione volunteered. "There might be mention of the circumstances around the end of his tenure. At the very least, we could confirm that his body isn't in some random cemetery."

Dumbledore shook his head negatively. "Now that we've determined that Harry was Lord Darkbane, it is no longer necessary for the other members of the Order to be focusing on other things. I don't want to announce our discovery quite yet, but I'll quietly assign separate Order members to start researching Lord Darkbane. It will take them far less time to go through all the documents in the Ministry archives."

Under normal circumstances, Ginny would have been extremely offended at being taken off the project at the first sign of a breakthrough, but she realized that Dumbledore was being practical. She, Ron, and Hermione would know Lord Darkbane's identity while the others would be in the dark. That was a good sign that Dumbledore wasn't insulting their abilities.

Ron and Hermione didn't look pleased, but Dumbledore was quick to avoid them getting angry. "Harry's ultimate fate is probably tied to Hogwarts," he said. "I realize that you turned up a blank when you researched earlier, but there must be something. If Harry departed for the future, he must have departed from here. Your research hasn't indicated that he had any other residence. The four of us will have to do our best to find what secrets this castle may have about Harry."

This pleased Ron, Hermione, and Ginny immensely. They were working exclusively with Professor Dumbledore at the scene of the crime as it were. Now that they knew Harry was Lord Darkbane, how hard could things be? Surely he left clues behind especially for them. They just had not been looking properly before.

They soon left Professor Dumbledore's office and managed to catch the tail end of dinner. Professor Dumbledore had made it clear to them in past weeks that their permission to participate was dependent on their keeping caught up in their classes, so they opted to get as much homework done that evening as possible.

Their excitement inspired unity and they were soon working together in a secluded corner of the Gryffindor common room. They achieved much in short spurts of intensity. Every few minutes one of them would interrupt the others with an idea.

"If I went to the past like Harry, I bet I could arrange to become really rich," Ron declared.

"I should think he would have other concerns," Hermione replied primly.

"Well think about it," Ron argued. "Harry could have easily bought tons of property or invested money with Gringotts. The interest from an account there would yield a lot of money over a thousand years."

Hermione rolled her eyes. "If you paid any attention in History of Magic, you would know that Gringotts has not existed forever. If I remember the precise dates, the bank didn't exist while Harry was at Hogwarts."

Ron was quite annoyed at having his or rather, Harry's, parade rained on by Hermione. He ignored Hermione by pretending to resume his homework, though his thoughts were still racing about what Harry might have done.

After a few minutes, Hermione began to feel guilty, so she tried to make a truce. "Money isn't the only valuable thing that Harry might have collected, you know."

This quickly caught Ron's interest. "You're right! He could have found all sorts of ancient treasures."

"I was thinking that maybe he collected books," Hermione said. "Books that are very old and expensive now might have been comparatively cheap then."

"Books," Ron scoffed. "That's the last thing he would have looked at."

Hermione was quite offended. "You had better hope he did collect books! That's the only way he would have been able to find a way to travel back to our time."

"He could have just gone and asked a really powerful wizard like Dumbledore," Ron argued.

"He was the 'Dumbledore' of his age!" Hermione declared shrilly. "Do you think Professor Dumbledore can just go around and ask other wizards how to deal with a problem when he has one? He has to go and find out for himself so he can help himself and help all the people who come to him."

Ron wasn't about to give up. "Maybe those magical rings just did everything for him. Or what about the hourglass that Snape talked about? Maybe it was a device he found that did everything for him."

"He would have had to find information about those in a book!" Hermione retorted.

Ron and Hermione's antics were causing Ginny a great deal of amusement and it soon became necessary for her to excuse herself before she burst into laughter and offended them. She packed all of her completed homework into her book bag and made her way upstairs and found her dorm deserted. Her roommates had male friends to spend Friday nights with, probably in the Astronomy Tower.

If Harry was in charge, they'd be getting cold water deposited on them about now, Ginny smirked. The fact that Harry had invited Peeves to the castle made much more sense now. He probably met Peeves and realized that it was his job to do that, Ginny told herself.

Telling herself that it would be good to get an early start on the search in the morning, Ginny opted to change into her nightclothes and go to bed. She was soon under the covers with the lights out. Soon, different thoughts were coming to her. How must have Harry felt?

Ninety-seven years was a terribly long time, not to mention the years before he became Headmaster. If he spent all that time in the past because he couldn't find a way back, he must have been very frustrated, Ginny determined. It was then that Ginny pictured how Harry had looked when he confronted Minister Smythe.

He seemed awfully sad and a little angry, Ginny thought. _I bet he was in the middle of trying to figure something out when those morons interrupted him, _she told herself.

It wasn't long before Ginny moved onto thinking about all of the great things Harry had probably accomplished. Sleep overtook her and by the next morning she was ready to put full effort into searching Hogwarts for information on Harry well before Ron and Hermione were.

Nothing was found on Saturday or even in the coming weeks. It seemed that no one had taken the time to record information about Hogwarts's first Headmaster. Ron and Ginny were especially frustrated at this and theorized that there was some sort of conspiracy to hide Harry from them. Hermione had more experience with research and came to different conclusions.

"Harry probably never bothered to see to it that there was a history about himself," she told them. "During that time period, if someone wanted to be remembered by history, they had to go out of the way to make sure that it happened. Harry probably didn't really care and might have even wanted to avoid it for fear of disrupting the time line."

Her statements seemed to soothe Ron and Ginny and proved to be true as they were able to discover that the second Headmaster had been a man named Greengrass. Almost all of the information they found had been in sources that Greengrass had compiled personally and put in the library. It was clear to them that Greengrass had been a terribly ambitious sort of fellow seeking after glory. They weren't sure how much they could believe of what he'd written.

Dumbledore put forth a large amount of effort and searched his records, office, and living quarters assuming that Harry must have occupied them. He found nothing. The portraits of former Heads knew nothing about Lord Darkbane. The oldest portraits were always sleeping and there didn't seem to even be portraits for the earliest Headmasters. He soon discovered that Professor Blood's portrait was in fact the oldest portrait in the office.

Despite the lack of more information about Harry's fate, the three teenagers and the Headmaster were upbeat and cheerful. Dumbledore seemed to walk with renewed energy and optimism. Ginny was excited and thriving. Hermione couldn't stop calculating the possible advantages. Ron's confidence had surged and he was doing better in all of his classes, but was getting a little prideful. Their friendship and association with Harry who was now clearly on level with Dumbledore gave them the sense that they somehow had more authority and power.

This attitude translated into increased confidence and was passed onto other students at the Dueling Club meetings. The club had done a great deal of good for everyone who attended. Professor Flitwick had commended them for their progress and told them that he was confident their skills would help them survive a Death Eater attack. Ron, Hermione, and Ginny took this to heart.

The Hogsmeade weekend just before the Christmas holidays found Ron, Hermione and Ginny in the Three Broomsticks nursing Butterbeers whilst socializing with nearly every student there. They had become rather popular. Consequently, their table had the most people sitting and standing at it.

"Have you heard anything about Voldemort?" Neville inquired casually from his seat at the table.

Everyone waited with bated breath for an answer from Ron or Hermione. Ron favored them with a response. "He's definitely out there scheming. We need to be on the watch."

"I bet the Slytherins are working for him," muttered a young Gryffindor who was standing near Ron's shoulder.

Daphne Greengrass glared at the said Gryffindor and silenced him promptly without having to say anything.

Hermione was always ready to lecture someone. "Anybody could be working for Voldemort," she declared. "It's important that we show them the reason why they should be with us instead of making them our enemies."

This lead to a lively discussion that often was repeated as students would leave for other shops and be replaced by others on a regular cycle. Ron, Hermione, and Ginny eventually decided that they needed to get their own Christmas shopping done as well and left the Three Broomsticks to go to Honeydukes to buy some treats.

The candy store was too crowded for much conversation and they made their purchases as quickly as possible. They were soon standing out in the street arguing about their next destination. Midway through the conversation they noticed a commotion in the crowds further down the lane.

It was only a few seconds after that they spotted what was causing the commotion. The Death Eaters were attacking the village. "Death Eaters!" shouted Ron, alerting all the students that hadn't noticed. "Either run or get ready to fight!"

Most of the students scampered, but there were a significant amount of older students who drew their wands and started running for various hiding places where they could cast spells but still be shielded. Ron did likewise. Hermione and Ginny opted to follow him and were soon entering Gladrags. The shopkeeper and customers had evacuated and the shop was deserted.

"We might be safer upstairs," Hermione said.

They soon discovered a staircase in a room in the back and went up. They were soon in an upstairs room with a window that overlooked the street. It appeared to be a bedroom of sorts. It had never occurred to them that one might rent lodging in Hogsmeade. Hermione cast a spell that caused the glass to disappear.

The Death Eaters were now swarming in the street outside. They were meeting staunch resistance from the Hogwarts students. Ron, Hermione, and Ginny were soon shooting stunners at every Death Eater they could see.

"This is working out fine," Ron declared.

"It will work fine until they figure we're up here," Hermione warned Ron. "Try to stay to the sides so they don't look up and see us standing here."

It was too late though. A major blasting hex cast by a Death Eater came their way and nearly destroyed the entire wall. Ron and Hermione dodged quickly enough, but Ginny got caught by flying debris from the destroyed wall and it sent her flying to the back of the room where she landed with a thud.

"Ginny!" Ron gasped. He rushed to check on her while Hermione shot several blasting hexes of her own toward the source of the spell.

Ginny was still conscious but in pain when Ron kneeled by her side. "I think my arm is broken," Ginny told him.

Ron helped her from her sprawled position on the floor among debris and sat her up against the wall. It was clear that her wand arm was broken as it was bent unnaturally. Ron took her wand and put it in her robes. She tried to move it to a better position for her hand, but intense pain caused her to cry out. Holding back tears, she spoke. "You'd better help Hermione or we're going to be in trouble."

Ginny's injury had sobered Ron up a bit. When he rejoined Hermione and began fighting again his spells had more intensity and accuracy. This was a serious fight now. He intended to show those Death Eaters that they weren't going to get away with anything.

The Death Eaters were at a disadvantage against all of the students. Though they knew Hogsmeade almost equally as well as the students, they were not the ones holed up in various hiding places. Only about ten minutes passed before they were on the defensive and retreating, though it seemed like an eternity to Ron, Hermione, and Ginny.

"Let's go make sure they leave for good!" Ron declared.

"Are you sure we should leave Ginny alone?" Hermione asked.

Ron's excitement and desire for vengeance outweighed his sense of caution. "She'll be fine. I doubt anyone will find her up there."

"I'll probably be fine," Ginny told them. "Just come back as soon as you can. I don't think I can get far on my own."

Ron and Hermione rushed out of the room and left the building. Ginny could hear them down in the street calling for some other students to help them give pursuit and secure the village. Several other students joined them and Ginny listened as their voices faded.

Ginny tried to relax. The pain from her broken arm seemed to be more intense now that she was alone and there was nothing to focus on. The adrenaline from the surprise attack had also faded leaving her in severe pain.

A noise in the building caused her to tense up. It's just the wind or something she tried to tell herself. Unfortunately, she was proved wrong as footsteps soon followed the original noise. Someone was in the building. Was it one of her friends?

A few minutes passed and then the question was answered when Bellatrix Lestrange entered the room. Ginny was propped up against the back wall, so Bellatrix's back was turned toward Ginny as the Death Eater surveyed the exploded store front and the view of the street below.

Her heart beating a double speed, Ginny tried to hold her breath, praying that Bellatrix wouldn't spot her. Fortune was not with her. Bellatrix turned and spotted Ginny immediately, pointing her wand at Ginny. "I thought you might be in here," she said to Ginny with a cruel smile.

Ginny was scared to death, but she didn't want to die like a cowardly beggar so she said nothing. There was no chance of fighting back as her wand was in her robes. She should have told Ron to put it in her other hand. When Bellatrix saw that Ginny wasn't going to say anything she spoke again. "The Dark lord wishes to speak to you, girl." She motioned with her wand. "Stand up."

When Ginny didn't make any motions to obey, Bellatrix walked over and grabbed her broken arm and yanked her to a standing position. Ginny screamed before the pain caused her to black out. When she next awoke, she found herself tied to a wall in a small dark room. Her broken arm was still in agonizing pain and she tried to block it out as she surveyed her surroundings.

This lasted for about half an hour before the door to the room opened and Lord Voldemort entered followed by Bellatrix and some other Death Eaters that Ginny did not recognize. Ginny's heart began to pound with fear._ I'm going to die_, she told herself.

The Dark lord looked at her and met her eyes with his blood red ones. "Ginny Weasley," he hissed.

Ginny returned his stare and glared, but didn't say anything as she couldn't think of anything good to say. The fact that she was in intense pain didn't help either.

Voldemort wasn't too amused and cast the Crucio curse on her. He held it for a minute while Ginny screamed in agony, wishing to die. He stopped and waited until her screams and sobs subsided. "Tell me what you know about Lord Darkbane."

Ginny remembered her commitment that no Death Eater would learn anything from her again. She knew that she would hold to it. However, she wondered if she would have been able to if she had not known that Lord Darkbane was Harry. "I'm not telling you anything," she said weakly.

This resulted in several minutes under the torture curse again. Ginny cried for longer after the pain subsided. She was still sobbing when Voldemort spoke again. "I know a great deal about Lord Darkbane," he told her. "I probably know more than you do or even the old fool. All I need are a few details. I'll find those details out soon enough; it will be easier for you if you help me."

Ginny couldn't help but consider her options at this point. Her commitment to not reveal information seemed so long ago. Voldemort would be able to find the same information that they had on his own eventually. The difference would be a delay and her own death. Was it worth that? He might not find the information though. Ginny began to calculate the value of her life.

If she sacrificed herself, would it make the difference in the Order's fight against Voldemort? Or would it be a useless gain? Would she be able to live with herself knowing that she had spilled everything even if it had not made a difference? If she told Voldemort that Harry was Lord Darkbane, Harry might lose any advantage he had and die. For some reason, this seemed to be a central thought. She owed Harry a life debt; she couldn't do anything to hurt him. Something in her seized upon this and she thought she might be able to resist, but was Harry alive or dead?

Voldemort took her extended silence as some sort of acquiescence, so he continued speaking without putting her under the torture curse again. "I know that Darkbane was Headmaster of Hogwarts at one point," Voldemort informed her. "I know all about him. In order to get what I want, I need to know where he went after Hogwarts."

"After Hogwarts?" Ginny gasped out, a small hope growing inside of her. She knew that Voldemort's claims to knowledge of Lord Darkbane weren't entirely false.

"You're not in a position to play games with me," snarled Voldemort. "After Lord Darkbane staged his suicide, where did he go?"

Despite her agony, Ginny felt the sweet feeling of triumph. Harry had staged his suicide. He was still alive and had probably returned to their time. This fact made Ginny's decision and gave her the ability to draw on the power her life debt to Harry afforded. She looked Voldemort in the eyes. "I will tell you nothing," she said as loudly as she could.

Voldemort's serpent-like nostrils flared with anger and his eyes seemed to glow. "You'll tell me everything," he said. "Bellatrix will help encourage you. When you're ready, let her know and I'll be back."

Voldemort swept out of the room with the other Death Eaters, leaving Bellatrix alone with Ginny. Bellatrix smiled and Ginny shuddered.


End file.
